Blood Red
by Fluticorns
Summary: When the golden trio is taken to The Malfoy Manor they make a desperate escape, forcing them to leave Hermione behind. After almost a month will Draco decide to save her or send her back to the dungeon? A Dramione! DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. You can check my wallet I have all of ten dollars to my name.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! I've wanted to do a Dramione for a while so here it is. I know it doesn't comply exactly with TDH but this is hardly a canon ship. Also this is my second fanfiction so cut me some slack. (My first is Hayniss/Haymiss if you're interested in reading it, it's almost done.)**

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As soon as I knew we were going to be captured I hit Harry with the stinging jinx. Ron whispered 'Shell Cottage' in my ear and next thing I knew we were in a mansion.

The Malfoy Manor to be exact, judging by the fact that Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco Malfoy all sat in armchairs around a fire.

One of the snatchers took us down a flight of stairs into what could only be described as a dungeon. I inhaled deeply trying to calm myself.

"Harry? Is that you?" A very familiar voice asked from the shadows.

"Luna?" Ron whispered in horror.

He flicked the deluminator and lights hovered in the air around us.

The Ravenclaw I had known was gone, replaced by a pale face that had obviously not seen the sun in ages, matted and dirty blond hair, and dull eyes. A ghost of what Luna used to be.

"Funny seeing you here Mr. Potter," another voice said and Mr. Ollivander stepped out from the shadows.

He too was pale and gaunt. He looked like a man who had been tortured within an inch of his life. In fact he probably had if half of Harry's visions were true.

"How long have you been here?" I murmured, still shocked that humans could be reduced to this.

"We lost count after several weeks," yet another voice hissed out. This one I didn't recognize.

Harry seemed to recognize the newcomer immediately. "Griphook?"

"Mr. Potter," The goblin answered as politely as a goblin could

No one spoke as Bellatrix's screech echoed through the manor..

"How did you get this sword!? Did that filthy little mudblood have it!? THIS WAS IN MY VAULT AT GRINGOTTS!" Bellatrix screeched from upstairs. "Go get that piece of filth! I will find out who is responsible for this!"

Ron pushed me behind him. "Stay back Hermione."

"Mudblood! Miss Lestrange wishes to see you," The squeaky voice of Peter Pettigrew ordered from the doorway.

"She's not going with you!" Ron snarled back.

Suddenly he was flying backwards. I flinched as he hit the stone wall with a sickening crunch.

"I have permission to kill that one and I happily will if you don't come with me!" Pettigrew laughed.

I walked toward him, trying in vain to hide the tremor in my step. He chuckled again and pulled open the door, pointing his wand around the cell so no one would attempt to escape. As if any of us would be so stupid.

"Hermione! No!" Ron called weakly.

I ignored him, not wanting him to get killed on my behalf, and allowed myself to be led up the stairs by the disgusting little rat.

* * *

Bellatrix stood waiting, a knife in her hand and wand in the other. Malfoy lounged in a chair off to the side, looking bored. Whatever was about to happen to me would alleviate his boredom, I was sure.

"Come here mudblood," Bellatrix ordered.

I didn't move. I refused to answer to mudblood.

"Crucio," the witch whispered softly.

My blood boiled, bones melted and all I could feel was pain. I refused to give her the satisfaction of screaming, biting into my lip instead. Seconds stretched into minutes and minutes into hours. When the curse finally stopped I was laying on the floor. It couldn't have been more than ten seconds.

"When I tell you to come, you come over here you filth!" She snarled.

Shakily I stood and walked over to her, not wanting to feel the cruciatus curse again.

"Now, where did you get that sword?" Bellatrix asked, venom dripping from her words.

"We found it, in the woods," I answered fighting down tears of pain. The truth wouldn't hurt anyone I figured.

She shoved me down to the floor so she was pressing all her body weight on me.

"LIAR! THIS WAS IN MY VAULT!" She screamed.

Something cold pressed into my left arm. Panicking I looked at my arm. Her knife was pressed against my skin.

"Tell me the truth you mudblood filth!" She hissed.

"It really was in the woods," I whimpered.

She pressed the knife into my arm and the pain took a moment to register. I couldn't help the scream this time, even though I knew it was hurting my friends in the dungeons to hear it. Never had I released such a sound. High pitched and hideous, like the golden eggs from the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"Please... please... stop! I'm not lying." I begged.

Bellatrix stopped slicing into my arm.

"Yes you are, and I will make sure this mark of your repulsiveness never fades," she cackled wickedly.

Sobbing I stole a glance at my arm. Through the blood I could only just make out the start of a word. Just 'mud' was there.

"CRUCIO!" She laughed.

There was more conviction in her word this time, I could tell. The pain was worse, everything started going red, and I could hear someone screaming behind the veil of agony. It took me a second to realize it was me. Then the torture stopped.

"I bet you want to be more forthcoming with information now, don't you mudblood?" She grinned wickedly.

I twitched on the ground, still feeling the aftershocks. A moan was my only response.

She sighed, "Fine."

She spent a painfully long time carving 'blood' into my arm. I contained the screams for a minute before the torture became too much. Ron and Harry yelled my name from the dungeon.

"Now, how did you get into my vault!?"

I barely processed her words, partly because I was losing blood steadily, and partly because I could barely think through the haze of pain.

"We. Never. Went. To. Your. Vault." I hissed fighting the pain, like Harry when he broke his arm, and again when he fought Voldemort in our fourth year.

She stood up, but I couldn't summon the strength to move.

"Crucio," Bellatrix murmured again, lazily.

I wanted to be sick from the pain. I wanted to cry again but I wouldn't give them the satisfaction. And then I heard Malfoy laughing. The curse stopped.

I had hoped he would save me. As much as we hated each other I hoped he would make the pain stop. I twitched and he laughed again.

"Not so high and mighty now are you?" He asked.

His voice made me sick.

"Expelliarmus" Harry yelled. The spell hit Bellatrix.

Harry yelled.

They'd gotten out... somehow. Malfoy dropped to the floor grabbing his aunt's knife and then my hair. He hauled me to my feet and I felt the cold blade on my throat. Not to mention I was pressed against Malfoy and barely able to stand.

"Stop or she dies!" He yelled. Harry and Ron froze. "Drop your wands, I won't hesitate to kill the mudblood."

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**Please review! I always try to update ASAP but more reviews motivate me to update faster. I hope you enjoyed this and will continue reading. Love you guys! (My Hayniss/Haymiss is called 'I Trust You' by the way.) Also I know most Dramiones are similair so I'm trying to make this as unique as possible.**


	2. Chapter 2

** Here's the next chapter everyone. Thank you all for reviewing, following, and favoriting this story! It means a lot to me.**

**This is not a fluffy chapter by the way.**

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Ron's wand fell to the floor first, followed by Harry's. Then there was an odd squeaking sound.

I glanced up to the crystal chandelier, and... Dobby was sitting on it. Of course, Dobby could apparate in and out of the manor, that was how Harry and Ron had gotten out. He must have taken Mr. Ollivander, Luna, and Griphook somewhere. Brilliant.

No one moved, just stared at the house-elf. I realized he was unscrewing the chandelier, and Malfoy and I were right underneath it.

As if in slow motion I saw the sparkling glass falling towards me. If I was going to die at least my last memory would be of something beautiful. But Malfoy pulled me back, the knife still to my throat, just before the chandelier shattered, spraying shards of glass everywhere.

Pain shot through my face as a piece sliced into my cheek. Malfoy growled several choice words when he too took glass to the face.

When I looked over, Harry, Ron, and Dobby were standing, hand in hand ready to apparate away from here.

"Go!" I called weakly.

"Hermione! No! We aren't leaving you," Ron answered distressed, tears were dripping down his face.

The whole incident took less than a minute. Bellatrix was climbing to her feet and Lucius and Narcissa's feet pounded down the stairs.

"Ron we have to go," Harry whispered.

I was feeling weaker every moment I had to stay standing.

"Go!" I yelled with my last bit of remaining strength. "Dobby, for me, get them out of here!"

The poor creature looked like his soul was ripped between two choices. It probably was.

"It will protect Harry."

Dobby gave me a sad look and took their hands. They were going to be safe. I saw something flicker through the air, yet another of Bellatrix's many knives. Dobby disapparated with a crack, but the knife had gone with them.

"Where did they go," Malfoy hissed in my ear.

"I... I don't know," I whispered, but the tremor in my voice gave away my lie. I knew exactly where they had gone, Bill and Fleur's house, Shell Cottage.

Malfoy dropped me back to the ground, and I stayed there. Bellatrix was telling Malfoy something while Lucius stormed through the house breaking things, followed closely by Narcissa who was repairing the things he broke.

"Make her tell you Draco, go on. A death eater has certain responsibilities he must fulfill and the torture of prisoners is one of them," Bellatrix hissed.

"Yes Draco. You have shown you are a failure at killing already, but you hate this mudblood much more than we do," Lucius added now that he had stopped breaking things.

My stomach clenched. Bellatrix I could somewhat deal with, she was just another death eater. But I had grown up with Malfoy and as deep as our hate had run I still suspected that there was some good in him. Turns out I was wrong.

"You think I need to be convinced to bring pain to a piece of filth like that? I was jealous Aunt Bella got to do it before, and you would do well to remember that you too have failed our cause before, father!" Malfoy spit out.

His feet came into my view and I let out a shudder.

"We could avoid this pathetic waste of my time if you tell me where they went," He grinned, and appeared as if he didn't want me to tell him right away.

"No," I answered.

I couldn't hold out long, I only hoped Harry and Ron would have the good sense to get everyone out of there. I could lie of course, and buy them a couple hours at most. At most.

Malfoy laughed coldly, "Crucio."

Pain shot through every inch of my body, turning my blood to lava and my bones to fire. There was a lot of anger built up behind this curse. Six years of it.

I writhed on the ground, telling myself to be strong. My high pitched scream pierced the air and he finally stopped. In the distance I could hear Bellatrix congratulating Malfoy and he was proudly accepting it.

"Go on mudblood, talk," Malfoy cocked his head at me grinning.

"You're enjoying this,"I whispered. He hated me that much. My eyes burned with tears. There was no good in him, when he rolled up his sleeves and picked up a knife I could see the dark mark reminding me of that one simple fact.

"Last chance," he smiled and knelt down and bringing the knife close to my face.

I shook my head.

The blade pressed into my right cheekbone, just below my eye he pulled it, almost gently, down my cheek to my jaw.

"Please," I begged as tears dripped down my face. "Please, stop. Why don't you just kill me?"

"Oh dear, is the famous Granger giving up? No I'm not going to kill you, see I'm enjoying this too much."

"Malfoy..."

"Where are your friends mudblood? The Weasel and Potty? Tell me and I'll stop... for now."

No one talked about my friends that way. Digging up strength from somewhere deep inside I clawed at his face successfully drawing blood. A lot of blood. Some dripped onto my face as he jumped back. He looked more surprised than injured.

"Crucio!" Malfoy screamed, and then there were no words that could describe what I was feeling. I didn't hear my own scream, I was aware of nothing but agony pouring through my being. When it stopped Malfoy was laughing as I lay convulsing on the floor.

He grabbed my hair and pulled me to my knees, "Where are they mudblood!?"

"Grimmauld Place," I lied. Please, please, don't see through my lie I thought.

"Well done Draco," Narcissa praised. "Shall we go search for them there then?"

Bellatrix looked suspicious, "But the death eaters know how to get into Grimmauld place you filth."

"Exactly, you would never suspect us to go there,that why it was where we agreed to go if we were seperated" I explained.

She studied my face for a moment then decided I must be telling the truth. "Let's go, leave Draco to guard the mudblood. He can put her back in the dungeon for safe keeping, I find her pain amusing and if I'm not mistaken he does as well."

Malfoy released my hair and I dropped back to the floor. There was a loud crack as the three adults disapparated. He pulled me up by my arm and hauled me down the stairs back to the dungeons, and locked me inside.

"Have fun mudblood."

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**Yeah it hurt me to write that. I will update soon, the play I was in is over now so more frequent updates are hopefully coming. I hope you enjoyed that chapter as much as you possibly could. I'll try to get this story fluffier soon but I want to keep this at least semi realistic.**

**Please leave reviews, they make my day. Love you guys!**


	3. Chapter 3

**New chapter for all my readers. I cannot express my love for you guys enough! Enjoy.**

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I shook in the cold, pressing my left arm to my side in a semi-successful attempt to stop the bleeding. There was no blanket, no food, no water, no warmth. At least Harry and Ron are safe, I told myself. They can keep hunting down horcruxes.

As long as they are alive I have something to live for.

After what I estimated to be half an hour the 'mudblood' carved into my arm had finally stopped bleeding. I guessed the knife was enchanted to leave a scar that even magic couldn't remove, but that wouldn't be as bad as the emotional scar it left. Everytime I saw my arm I would be reminded of what I was. A mudblood.

I was attempting in vain to sleep when I heard the adults arriving back in the manor.

"Go and fetch the mudblood Draco! They weren't at Grimmauld Place, she lied to us!" Bellatrix screeched.

Sound certainly traveled well though this house.

"Aunt Bella, did you really think they would stay there for long? They know how weak mudbloods are when tortured," Malfoy drawled. "Even those idiots aren't thick enough to stay there for more than a moment. Besides, that filth was always a terrible liar. I would have known, after all I was forced to grow up with her."

Bellatrix must have accepted his answer because no one came to fetch me from the dungeon.

But it left me wondering. If Malfoy supposedly knows when I lie, he should have known I was lying before. And it seemed as if he had covered for me.

It was laughable. Draco Malfoy, the boy who had made my life hell since I was eleven protecting me from his psycho aunt? No. He probably just wanted to go to bed.

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Over the next several weeks, I wasn't sure exactly how many days because I never left the dungeon and there was no sunlight, a routine was developed.

Wake up, in what I assumed was the morning, and Bellatrix would come downstairs and torture me for fun for awhile. She never asked questions, just practiced her skills with the cruciatus curse on me. They were quite refined by now.

Then three pathetic slices of bread and a glass filled with murky water appeared a few hours after she left.

Around dinner time, I guessed, came the part I truly dreaded. I dealt with the physical torture and lack of food okay, as well as one could. But later when Malfoy would descend the stairs holding a knife and his wand, the emotional impact of being tortured by someone my age, that went to school with me would set in.

Some days all he did was reopen the gash on my right cheek and stare at the blood for a while and other days he would beat me to the ground, demanding to know why my blood was red and not brown. Obviously it really bothered him, but not enough to change him because Godric knows that would have been to much to ask for.

I never answered, just let him stand over me screaming while I lay crumpled on the ground trying to avoid kicks to the throat and head and sobbing in pain.

Everyday. That was exactly how it went, until what I estimated to be my third week in the dungeon.

* * *

Bellatrix didn't show up. Not that I minded. I wouldn't have noticed except my food didn't come either. I could tell by the pangs of hunger that were stronger than usual.

Malfoy came though. I had to give the Slytherin credit, he was reliable in some things. Just not the right things.

I could tell today was one of the days where he'd renew the slice on my face, stare at it for a while and leave. Turns out I was half right.

I scrambled back into a corner. In the last weeks I had learned to fear the pale boy. He cared about no one, least of all me.

"Lumos," he sighed. Blinding light shot out of his wand and lit up the room.

He conjured a chair and sat down as I continued to shrink deeper into the corner, almost as if hiding from the light.

Malfoy sighed again. "We've been over this mudblood. It will only be worse for you if you hide."

I was shaking, but knew from experience that he was not lying. For the first time in a while I attempted to stand but only fell back down, smacking my head on the floor for my trouble. I was to weak. He let out a quick bark of laughter. I crawled over towards Malfoy and screwed my eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable blow.

It never came.

"Don't look so pathetic filth," he bit out.

I visibly flinched at his words. This was what would break me. The emotional wearing down that Malfoy was so talented at.

I opened my eyes staring up at him. Slowly, I was realizing I had never been more terrified of someone than I was of him.

"Not once mudblood. Everyday I come down here and not once do you speak to me. In fact I haven't heard anything from you but tears of pain and screams of agony."

That was true, I had stopped talking since my first night of imprisonment. And I certainly never cried out of self pity, only in pain.

His eyebrows were raised as he stared coldly down at me.

"Say something," Malfoy ordered.

I was silent.

"Now mudblood."

He gripped the knife a little tighter.

I tried to come up with one of my usual sharp retorts but couldn't, even something like 'I hope you rot in hell' would have done.

"My blood's the same color as yours because we aren't that different. Being pureblood doesn't make you better," I said instead, and then braced myself for his anger.

"You keep telling yourself that," he murmured, staying unusually calm.

Neither of us spoke for several minutes. I stayed on the ground, shaking and Malfoy stayed in his chair toying with the knife. Suddenly I clawed the scab off of my face and felt blood dripping down my cheek.

"Here! Is this what you wanted to see?" I snarled.

Something flashed behind his cold grey eyes.

"No. I just came down here to tell you something," he began. "Potter and the Weasel got themselves killed earlier today, trying to break into my aunt's vault at Gringotts."

It took me several seconds to process what he was saying.

"No! You're lying!"

Malfoy held up a newspaper that I hadn't noticed before, in response.

"'Harry Potter, Undesirable Number One, was killed early this morning attempting to rob the highest security vault in Gringotts Wizarding Bank. The goblins assure everyone that nothing was taken from Miss Lestrange's vault, though wizarding authorities are unsure as to why he would attempt such an idiotic deed,'" Malfoy read, smirking.

Tears mingled with the blood on my cheeks. The boys were the only things I had left to hold on to. They were the only reason I went on. These were not tears of pain, but tears of my heart being ripped into pieces. Real tears and in front of Malfoy. But I had bigger issues than crying on front of my torturer.

Malfoy stood up and left quickly, taking the light with him.

He and Bellatrix had spent weeks trying to break my spirit. And in one sentence my arch enemy had broken me.

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**So I ghosted over Malfoy torturing Hermione a bit. It hurts me inside to write it even though it's necessary for this story. ****I know it seems like I'm going to make this one of those stories where Hermione is a slave but I'm not I promise. Nothing against those stories of course. Remember the Malfoys and Bellatrix are trying to break Hermione and they will try anything. Draco is capable of lying *hint hint*.**

**I feel bad about making Hermione so hopeless but that is also necessary.**

**Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. Thanks to everyone who followed, reviewed, or favorited this story. Please leave more reviews. I get high off of them and I'm not even kidding.**

**Also thanks to my friend that harasses me at school to update. Love you!**

**I updated my Hayniss ('I Trust You') earlier tonight also.**

**Follow me on tumblr, the link is on my profile, and I will make a post when I update.**

**I talk a lot, sorry. Have a great day, I'm done now.**

**Guys I got no reviews for this chapter in 9 days. Please review, otherwise I don't know if I'm going in a good direction with the story, please. You're killing me.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry this is so late, I saw Divergent finally and was having a few days of Fourtris feels. Anyways I'm back now. I hope you enjoy this chapter. My next update depends on you. (See the authors note on the bottom for more details) Enjoy!**

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For the first time in a long time I cried myself to sleep. My dreams were not happy, and yet they were the same as always. Harry and Ron defeating Voldemort and then rescuing me. Or the three of us at Hogwarts, just going to classes. And I would have to color code their papers and check over their essays. Never again.

Never again.

* * *

When I awoke the first thing I realized was that I was no longer covered in dried blood and dirt. Instead I was clean, my hair was brushed out and washed and their were sloppily done bandages around my arms and stomach.

I wasn't in the dungeon anymore I was in a real bed, with actual pillows, and blankets, and warmth.

I had forgotten what it was like to be warm so I just lay there, eyes shut, soaking in the warmth..

When I did blink my eyes open, I could see moonlight streaming through the window, lighting up the room just enough that I could make out my surroundings.

The walls were green and silver. On one I thought I could make out the Slytherin house crest but I wasn't sure. I rolled over and saw a wall adorned with a giant picture of a Quidditch team in dark green robes. Something was nagging in the back of my mind, about where I was but I couldn't grab it.

Until I rolled the otherway.

Blonde hair shining in the moonlight. Hair that smelled faintly like rain and fresh air. Blonde hair, Slytherin themed bedroom. I sat up in terror and scrambled back away from Malfoy and off the edge of the bed. My back hit the floor and I realized it must be bruised because it hurt way more than it should've. I let out a sharp cry of pain.

I was in a bed with Malfoy.

The bed squeaked and Malfoy's head peeked over the side.

"Granger, what are you doing?" Malfoy growled, gazing down at me.

I shivered at the coldness in his gray eyes and didn't respond. Instead I looked at myself and realized I was wearing sweatpants, why the Malfoy's had sweatpants in their house was a mystery to me, and a black button up shirt that looked scarily like one of Malfoy's. Someone had bathed and changed me.

"You didn't... please say you didn't..." I could hear the panic in my voice. Panic that Malfoy had seen me naked.

"House elves," he answered.

That was a relief. He waved his wand and a few lights came on.

"You do realize it's six in the morning?' Malfoy drawled, giving me a look of distaste.

"I haven't known the time for three weeks."

He just continued staring at me.

"Why am I in your bedroom?" Then it dawned on me. "No. No. Please, Malfoy...no."

I scrambled back into the corner of the room. I would rather die than become Malfoy's... even the thought was unthinkable.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Calm down Granger, I'm not going to hurt you."

He didn't actually expect me to believe that did he? But for some reason his words calmed me down, a little.

"Then why am I here?" I asked.

"Suddenly all talkative are you? I would think it would be quite the opposite seeing as how your friends-"

"Don't!" I yelled. "Just don't," My voice dropped to a whisper as I tried not to cry.

He refused to look at me for a moment.

"Why?" I asked again.

"You're supposed to be the brightest witch of our age and you honestly can't figure it out?" He snapped.

Yes I could, it was something to do with my blood being red. It was too simple of an answer for me but I wasn't going to push it. I didn't really want more bruises.

"My blood bothers you that much?"

"It's blood red Granger, of course it bothers me. Can we go back to bed now?"

"I'm not sleeping in the same bed as you."

"I wouldn't shag you if my life depended on it," he snapped back.

My eyes widened at his harsh words and I shrunk even deeper into the corner.

"Have it your way then," Malfoy sighed.

He threw a pillow at my face as hard as he could. I did manage to duck from the blanket though. With one last glance at him I lay my head down on the pillow and wrapped the blanket around me.

* * *

"Granger! Get up!"

My eyes snapped open as I whipped my head around trying to get my bearings.

That's right, Malfoy had gotten me out of the dungeon and I wasn't sure why.

"Now Granger!"

I looked up at Malfoy. He was standing there in his normal black pants and crisp white shirt.

"Downstairs in five minutes," he walked out.

I barely processed his words, too distracted by why he was being nice. Okay, so it wasn't exactly nice. Most guys would take the floor and give the bed to the girl but still, I was out of the dungeon, clean, and sleeping in his room. There was probably something in this for him. Maybe he just wanted to make me think he liked me and then break me more by telling me he doesn't.

There was now three minutes until I was supposed to be downstairs. What would happen if I didn't go? I shuddered at the thought. Malfoy was quite adept at inflicting pain, and I was not going to give him a reason to.

I stood up and got a good view of his room for the first time. There was so much Slytherin I thought I was going to be sick so I limped my way out of the room, I was still weakened from weeks in captivity. There was a bathroom right outside Malfoy's room that I went in, and it had a huge mirror on one wall.

I tried my best not to look at myself in it, but in a sick way I couldn't help it. My right cheek had a slash from the cheekbone to jaw that would definitely scar. I could make out bruises on my neck trailing up from my collarbone. Nervously I unbuttoned and pulled off my shirt to study the bruises.

The house elves had wrapped bandages around my stomach, no doubt thinking it would somehow help me heal faster. I pulled them off gently, but it still hurt. My eyes widened when I saw myself.

There was a dark blue bruise on my right shoulder, extending around to my collarbone, and up my neck a little ways. On my stomach there were two huge black and blue bruises and there was another one down my whole right arm. Another dark bruise was on my left hip, climbing up my side, and wrapping around to my back.

I quickly put my the shirt back on disgusted. Malfoy did that. Not Bellatrix. Malfoy.

"GRANGER!"

How were the elder Malfoys not hearing this?

I left the bathroom, and found the staircase where Malfoy was waiting.

"I assume you can handle walking down some stairs?" he snapped.

I seriously doubted it, but I grabbed the railing and took the stairs one at a time. Easy Hermione, I told myself. One at a time. About two steps down I felt my right knee buckle and fell forward.

My ribs hit the stairs and pain shot through my chest. I was sliding face first down a huge flight of stairs, now I was rolling. My body hit a pair of legs, I heard knees hit the wooden stairs, and two of us were falling now.

"Granger!" Malfoy yelled.

He grabbed the back of my head as we came to the bottom of the stairs. My head hit the tile floor hard, or it would have if Malfoy's hand wasn't blocking it.

"Holy... ow!" he yelled.

I was laying on my back with Malfoy pressed on top of me our legs tangled together from the fall.

I didn't move, just lay there frozen in terror. What was he going to do to me?

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

"Can you at least handle the flat floor to the dining room?"

I nodded, then stumbled on my first step. Malfoy sighed and reached out for my arm. I flinched away.

"What part of 'I'm not going to hurt you' didn't you understand last night?"

Without waiting for an answer he grabbed my arm and helped me walk into the dining room.

There was definitely something in this for him.

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**Okay guys, I got no reviews on the last chapter so I'm not updating again until I get at least 5. Please. I love writing this story but without your feedback I don't know how I'm doing.**

**Thanks for the considerable number of you that followed or favorited! Also you find out where Draco's parents are next chapter and also about Ron and Harry.**

**Review... I meant what I said and I said what I meant an elephants faithful one hundred percent. So I'm not an elephant but close enough.**

**Funny story about that btw. I made an elephant out of duct tape and had it mooing for about 3 minuted before I realized elephants don't moo.**

**Anyway**** love you guys! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Some Dramione song suggestions: Bleeding Out, Demons, and Monster all by Imagine Dragons and Say Something by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera. I have these on a playlist for when I work on this story. They may not necessarily fit this chapter or even story but they're great for the ship.**

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"You can cook?" I asked Malfoy.

We were sitting at a table covered with bacon, eggs, toast and fruits.

"No. The house elves can," he answered sharply and resumed eating and reading the paper.

My empty plate sat in front of me, untouched.

"And it's not poisoned either Granger," he added when he noticed my plate.

I stared at the food for a few more moments before giving in. At the last second I remembered what I had read once, about a starving person who eats too much food at one time vomiting it back up or becoming deathly ill. Maybe that was his plan to kill me.

"Where are your parents and... Bellatrix?" I asked between bites.

"Sorting out the mess Potter and Weasley made. They'll be gone for a week, at least." He answered coldly, without even glancing up.

My eyes widened and I tried to hide the pain in them, unsuccessfully.

I stopped eating after a few pieces of bacon, and a spoonful of scrambled eggs. Malfoy didn't question me, just started a fire with his wand. He never did anything manually if it could be done with a wand.

"You just stay down here for a while. I'll be down later."

He left, just like that.

I sat down in front of the fireplace, staring up at the ceiling. There was a space to hang a chandelier. I guessed there had been a chandelier there until Dobby dropped it. They must have had the room recarpeted too.

I had been tortured here. I had, had mudblood carved into my arm here. I rolled up my sleeve and undid the bandage over the words. It was as hideous as I remembered if not more so. The actual lacerations had healed, leaving a raised, pale scar.

Quickly, I pulled my sleeve back down, not wanting to look at it anymore.

For the next several hours I just stared into the fire, watching the embers flickering. At one point I considered putting more wood on it, then remembered I could barely walk half the time and gave up on that idea.

It was probably enchanted to keep burning anyway, but I needed something to do, anything to do. I was growing exhausted from sheer boredom.

"Miss?" A tentative voice asked. "Master Malfoy asked me to bring this to you."

When I turned around there was a small house elf holding a bowl of soup and a plate with some buttered rolls. She set it down wringing her hands.

"Thanks," I whispered, giving her a faint smile.

With a loud crack she made her exit. I hoped she knew she did a good job, I didn't want to know I was responsible for her punishing herself.

Distracted by the soup smell wafting towards me, I pulled the food closer.

Homemade chicken noodle soup. I could tell. It was just like the soup my mother used to make I thought nostalgically, then told myself I had bigger problems than my parents memories, or lack there of.

Problems like why Malfoy got me out of the dungeon in the first place, and had his house elves making me food, and made me a fire. I refused to accept the blood explanation, it was too cliche... I guess.

Well maybe he brought me up from the dungeon because of the blood but the food, that was definitely something more.

I ate the soup slowly, hoping I could keep it down as well as breakfast and I did, luckily. Leaving the empty dishes on the ground I stretched out in front of the fire, my back to it. I was sure to keep me hair down and covering the barely visible bruise on my neck.

For almost an hour I tried falling asleep but to no avail. Judging by the size of this house there was a library somewhere, but the last thing I needed was for Malfoy to catch me wandering around his house. So I just lay on the floor, trying to sleep.

I heard Malfoy's feet pounding down the stairs and I did my best to steady my breathing, pretend to be asleep. His feet came closer. I cracked my eyes open and could see his feet right next to my face. As my eyes shut again I heard him drop to his knees in front of my face.

His hand was soft against my right cheek. Malfoy's thumb gently stroked along the wound running down my face as I did my best to seem asleep. To not flinch, or shudder in repulsion.

Then he pulled his hand away and headed into the kitchen. I waited for several minutes, then stretched, pretending to wake up.

What was he even doing? Was this some kind of kindness showing in my blond tormentor? I doubted it.

"Are you awake yet?" He sighed.

That was a dramatic mood swing.

I rolled onto my back and opened my eyes. Literally, he was right there. Standing over me and peering down in annoyance.

Involuntarily I shifted away from him slightly. Not exactly out of his reach but not in kicking range anymore. He must have noticed the fear behind my eyes because he sighed in exasperation. If he honestly believed I could think he wouldn't hurt me he was mistaken. Severely mistaken.

But maybe he wasn't. He had yet to hurt me today and in some ways I was more at his mercy now, than I was in the dungeon.

"Dinner? Or are you going to starve yourself?"

I didn't answer just stood up. It was painful. My muscles were tight from laying on the floor all day and anywhere I had a bruise just plain hurt all the time. Especially when I breathed.

Unfortunately I couldn't stop breathing. If I could maybe I could go join Harry and Ron and get out of my living hell.

I sat down heavily at the table staring at the feast spread out along it in shock.

"Expecting guests?" I asked, pleased that I could still think of somewhat of a witty comment.

He gave me a look as he joined me at the table. It wasn't a cruel look like usual, it was a look that said this was what he normally did. To him this was an average meal.

This was his life and how he was raised. He never knew any better and for a moment I felt a twinge of pity for him. Then I caught sight of my reflection on one of the platters, and the ugly slice running down my cheek and I didn't feel pity for him anymore.

Hurting me was his choice. No one made him do it after the first time.

"Hello, Granger? Welcome to Earth," Malfoy said.

"Apologies your majesty. I thought I was in hell and got confused," I snapped back, and immediately regretted it.

He practically shot fire from his eyes. It was Professor McGonagall's rage when students didn't turn in their homework, only magnified a hundred times.

"I may have missed you talking a little bit, but I didn't miss that!"

I really wanted to comment on him missing my talking but I didn't want him pissed at me. More than he was at least.

"Besides, you're better off than most. Maybe you should be thanking me," Malfoy added angrily.

"Yes I'll be sure to thank you next time I am locked in a dungeon for three weeks, in the dark, and tortured by you. Every. Single. Day!" My voice steadily rose in volume and pitch. "And of course when someone permanently scars my face I should be grateful, and leaves me in the dark, and gives me a glass of potion laced water and some bread for my one meal. And let's not forget how your side killed my only two friends! They were my... my only friends!"

"It's a cellar," he answered.

"What?" I snapped my head up to meet his eyes, hardly believing what I'd just heard.

He rolled his eyes. "It's not a dungeon, it's called a cellar."

"You! Sick! Bastard! Why don't you spend a couple weeks locked in there being tortured and tell me your opinion of it then!"

I stood up and limped out of the room as quickly as I could, not even bothering to grab any food. I even managed the stairs, but barely, before I collapsed on the floor of his room.

He was sick. I try to tell him half the things he had done to me, not to mention that he had completely broken my will to live, and all he could do was tell me his basement wasn't technically a dungeon. That sick, twisted, little ferret!

I snuggled into my corner under the same Slytherin blanket as last night. The door opened and Malfoy walked in.

"Why" I asked him. "If you hate me so much why?"

"What are you talking about now?"

"Why'd you do it?" I knew I was pushing it, but I wanted to see if he was telling the truth when he said he wouldn't hurt me.

"Blood Granger, for the last time," he answered climbing into his bed.

"I don't believe that."

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**So guys the comments were great for the last chapter! omg I was so happy. My mom thought I was doing drugs or something. They made my day and thank you all so much. Also thanks for following or favoriting this story. **

**FYI my Hayniss fanfiction is done so I can devote all my time to this one but I'll probably get another one going soon. Any suggestions let me know.**

**I'm going to Tennessee over spring break with my marching band but I'll try to update while I'm there and before I leave. Were driving so I should have plenty of time.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter please leave comments I actually read them all. Every last one. They also motivate me to update faster.**

**Love you guys! Have a great spring break if you get one. I'll update soon!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Oh my god you guys I am so sorry! I was in Tennessee and I just got so caught up in everything there I didn't work on this story. Sorry! But if you ever get a chance to go to Nashville go! It was amazing.**

**I hope you enjoy.**

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I was completely immobile with no idea where I was. My head was moving against my will, following a trail of blood on the gray concrete floor. Right to Harry.

The smell of blood, metallic and cold, flooded through my senses. I watched Harry's body convulsing on the floor as blood pumped from his veins onto the concrete. I tried to climb up and help him but I was unable to move, just watching Harry bleeding out.

"Hermione! Hermione, please help me! Please Hermi-" He begged then started coughing blood everywhere.

"Do something Hermione or don't you care?" Ron's voice mocked.

Tears streamed from my eyes as I struggled against the invisible bonds.

"Harry! Ron! I can't!" I screamed.

And Ron's body joined Harry's, bleeding onto the cold concrete.

"No! You're my only friends! Ron! Harry!"

I sucked in a sharp breath as my eyes snapped open. It was just a dream, just a nightmare. I was still in Malfoy's room, sleeping under his blanket, on his pillow, in the corner... of his room. I still didn't know why. And Harry and Ron were still dead.

Dead.

I was breaking out in a cold sweat and drawing in sharp breaths, in a useless attempt to calm down.

After a while I settled back down in the corner and fell into a mercifully dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Good morning," Malfoy hissed sarcastically. "I'd ask how you slept but the screaming last night made the answer to that quite evident."

His gray eyes stared at me from across the room and I climbed out from under the blanket. I tried to come up with a sharp retort but my sleep clouded mind couldn't.

"If you got up today that would be nice Granger."

I stood up. My body was sore and I was certain the bruises were darker today. Malfoy sighed, obviously I wasn't moving fast enough.

He threw me over his shoulder, and I whimpered slightly as his shoulder hit my bruised stomach.

"You are Hermione Granger, grow up a little!" Malfoy snapped as he carried me down the stairs and set me down in the chair, hard.

I shot him a glare.

"You could have been a little nicer."

He ignored me, "Since you skipped dinner last night, I had the house elves make you a big breakfast."

There was a plate laden with french toast and a container of syrup.

"Why do you have so many muggle things?" I asked as I ate.

Malfoy sat down across from me and folded his hands.

"First of all, syrup is a necessity to everyone's life, but I would appreciate if you didn't mention the sweatpants to my parents," he answered.

"Did you just make a joke?"

"Yes," he answered sharply.

When I didn't say anything else he walked out of the room. He returned a few seconds later with a glass of crystal clear water.

"Drink up," he said, setting the glass on the table in front of me.

Now what was he doing? The question must have shown in my eyes because he sighed and sat down.

"Remember last night? You said you had 'potion laced water' so I got you clear water."

I picked up the glass and studied it closely. It looked so clear and beautiful and I took a sip and proceeded to drink the whole glass. That was what water was supposed to taste like.

"Why'd you do that? I didn't know you'd even listened. In fact, why are you doing this whole thing, I could be dying in the dungeon right now, make a lot of people happy," I whispered. My voice sounded weak and broken.

He stared at me, a spark of annoyance in his gray eyes, because I had referred to his basement as a dungeon and not a cellar no doubt. "Maybe someday I'll tell you. What potion did Bellatrix put in your water?"

"Maybe someday I'll tell you," I answered with a bite in my voice.

He rolled his eyes, "Same as yesterday, I'll be back in a bit."

With that he left the room, probably off to kill innocent children, or torture muggles, or bully younger students. Speaking of which, why wasn't he at Hogwarts? I could add that to the list of questions I knew he would never answer.

I left the now empty plate on the table for the house elves. For the second day in a row I stared at the fire, only today I didn't see the flickering embers.

I saw Harry and Ron's bloody bodies, laying on the ground.

I couldn't keep staying in this room. I couldn't. Wincing, I picked myself up off the floor and started towards the door.

"Miss? Do you need anything?" A squeaky voice asked.

I looked at the house elf, smiling tenderly.

"I could really use a change of clothes," I said to her. She left with a loud crack and I made my way, slowly, to the shower.

Another crack signaled her arrival in the hallway.

"Here you are miss."

She handed me a black dress and a change of undergarments.

"Thank you," I called, but the elf was already gone.

I was not going to wear this dress. I had too many bad memories with dresses, particularly black ones. I would rather keep wearing Malfoy's shirts, and that was saying something, so I snuck into his room and stole a white shirt and black slacks.

He was going to be pissed. But I honestly didn't care, this was testing the truth of his repeated promise not to hurt me. There wasn't much he could do to me anyway, I was too hurt inside.

I made my way back to the bathroom. After several tries I figures out how to turn on the shower and stripped out of my clothes. As I suspected, the bruises had worsened, becoming darker and more pronounced against my skin. The slice down my cheek had scabbed over and fortunately, didn't seem to be infected.

The water was warm against my skin, like blood. Absolutely not. I told myself. I would not think about my nightmare. It felt wonderful to shower on my own, conscious.

There was a bottle of shampoo and conditioner on a shelf. I flipped the lid open and inhaled something that smelled vaguely familiar, kind of like Malfoy. The realization that Malfoy used conditioner struck me and I had to stifle a hysterical laugh. I was loosing it.

I rubbed his hair product through my hair, trying to stop laughing. In reality it wasn't funny, but it was, even though it wasn't.

"Granger! I swear to god! If you used my shampoo and conditioner..." Malfoy yelled through the door.

I shut off the water and threw my clothes on, not bothering to dry off. I was going to die, follow Harry and Ron's footsteps and I didn't need to be dry when I died. I opened the door to Malfoy, arms crossed tapping his foot.

"Let me smell your hair," he snapped.

I took a step back and tried to shut the door again, but he held it open.

"Okay, I used your shampoo... and conditioner... and body wash," I murmured.

"Why?" He sounded pissed.

"I was bored," I answered in a small voice.

"So you decided to-," he stopped. "Are you wearing my clothes!?"

"I was wearing some of your stuff before."

He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Then he pulled out his wand and I took a step back.

"I am not going to hurt you! For the last time!"

Malfoy waved his wand over my hair and it dried instantly.

"Go back down stairs," he commanded.

I made my way down the steps successfully and sat back down in front of the fire. Malfoy entered the room a few minutes later.

"Don't you eat these these things or something?"

He dropped a pile of books next to me.

"No more wandering around my house," he said and left.

Draco Malfoy had just brought me books to read and had left me still wondering why.

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**I hope you enjoyed guys! Keep reviewing, I read them all and they are so lovely, thank you all. I will try for an update tomorrow or later tonight. Thank you for following or favoriting this story and me! Keep the reviews coming, they're so motivational. Love you guys and go visit Nashville.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry this update was so late at night! My computer was having issues. My Google chrome will not work and I have to do everything on Internet Explorer. Ugh!**

**Thank you for the reviews, follows, and favorites guys, they make me so happy.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

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After I had read _Hogwarts: A History_ again a house elf I hadn't seen before brought me more homemade soup and buttered bread.

Somehow I kept forgetting I was still a captive in this house, and while I was here, despite what Malfoy said, I was never going to be safe. If I had somewhere to go I would be formulating an escape plan, but I didn't. Going to the Weasleys would only endanger them more and for all I knew they could be dead. My parents were in Australia with no memory of me but returning to them would get them killed no matter what.

I was stuck here. If I was lucky, Malfoy would kill me before his parents and Bellatrix got home. Without Harry there was no chance of defeating Voldemort. I had a theory that some of Voldemort was inside of Harry and only Voldemort could destroy it. Now that Harry was dead, that piece of Voldemort's soul would live forever.

If I was unlucky, Bellatrix and Malfoy would slowly torture me to death or I would be killed for being muggle born.

Either way I was as good as dead.

I sat, staring at one page for awhile, pondering these depressing thoughts and realizing I could die whenever Malfoy got tired of me.

"You haven't turned the page in at least twenty minutes," Malfoy drawled.

I whipped my head around, not realizing he was in the room. The wounded, right side of my face bounced off of something hard. His knee. I was so preoccupied with death I hadn't noticed him sitting down on the couch right behind me.

"Oh god! Ow," I moaned, clutching my face.

It didn't seem to be bleeding but it still hurt.

"You're allowed to put a bandage or something on that. The scar will be bad enough as it is," he said.

I slid away from him. Even though I liked to think I had made my peace with dying I wasn't going to ask for death just yet.

"Why do you care?" I whispered, keeping my eyes on the floor.

I was a Gryffindor for gods sake and I couldn't even look up at Malfoy. Sometimes I disgust myself.

"Because everytime I look at it, I see that your blood is red," He answered calmly and stood up.

I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that wasn't the only reason.

"Don't roll your eyes at me Granger!"

He took a step towards me and I moved further back, terrified. He sighed and pulled me to my feet.

"Repeat after me," he ordered. "Draco isn't going to hurt me."

"Draco isn't going to hurt me," I said, but my voice was still shaking and it was obvious I didn't believe my own words.

He sighed again. Malfoy sighed a lot I'd noticed.

"Dinner. This time without any arguments," he said.

Malfoy let me walk to the table myself, but stayed by my side the whole couple yards to the dining room. For a moment I allowed myself to labor under the delusion that he could actually care for me, even just a tiny bit. Then I felt a twinge of pain on my bruised shoulder and pushed that thought aside.

I made sure my hair was hiding the bruise on my neck. Luckily it had been covered when I got out of the shower and when Malfoy snuck up on me. He knew what he had done but for some reason I just didn't feel like letting the bruise show.

Like last night the elves had made a huge meal for us.

"What do you do all day?" I asked.

"What do you think I do?" he answered, irritably.

"I don't know, torture bunnies or something."

He laughed but there was no humor in it. "I do my schoolwork, it's spring semester. You may have noticed I'm not at Hogwarts, instead I'm here looking after my house. But with the way Hogwarts is run, I could be torturing bunnies tomorrow for all I know."

I started to ask another question and he cut me off.

"Just eat and stop talking."

I ate and then we made our way upstairs. I tucked myself into the corner while Malfoy headed across the hall, presumably to shower.

* * *

"HARRY!"

I sat back against the wall as I was awaken by my second nightmare that night.

Rubbing my eyes, I tried to calm down. My breathing was labored as I tried in vain to go back to sleep. I didn't want to sleep if that was what would greet me in my dreams.

So I stood by the window the rest of the night, staring out at the moon. And that was where I was when Malfoy woke up in the morning. He looked like he was in a crappy mood.

"Everytime! Everytime you scream and wake up, so do I!" he snarled at me and stomped out of the room.

"Sorry, I'll try to dream of more unicorns and rainbows and worry less about how long I'm going to survive as a mudblood with no friends!" I yelled after him, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

A door banged open and Malfoy came storming into the room. Why couldn't I control my mouth?

I vaguely registered he was shirtless as he stalked up to me.

"Do not ever call yourself that! Do you understand me? Never!" He shouted.

His face was a few inches from mine and I shrunk a little further back.

"Sorry," I squeaked.

He took a few steps back and ran his hands through his blonde hair.

I went back to staring out the window, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Not even that he wasn't wearing a shirt, but that I found myself thinking how attractive he was. I was going to make myself be sick. This is Malfoy I was talking about. Malfoy.

When I looked away from the window he was buttoning up a new shirt.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"What?" I said hardly believing I'd heard what I just thought I'd heard.

"I said sorry for yelling at you," Malfoy snapped.

I was still pretty sure I had misheard him.

"Just don't call yourself that," he added.

"Okay?" It came out as more of a question.

I followed him down the stairs, this time managing them alone, to breakfast. The elves didn't have anything made so I went for the very simple bagel and cream cheese while he headed off to do schoolwork.

Taking the bagel and a glass of water with me I chose another book, one I hadn't read before, and sat down in front of the fire.

The book was full of all sorts of wizarding fairy tales. It wasn't _The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard_ but it was very similar in content. I found comparing wizarding fairy tales to muggle fairy tales was quite interesting. I couldn't believe I didn't do it before.

I could almost hear Harry and Ron sighing as I explained the similarities-. No Harry and Ron thoughts I told myself. It hurts to much.

"Granger! Come here!" Malfoy yelled from across the house.

I set down the book and started towards the dining room where I assumed he was yelling at me from.

"Put these on," he handed me a pair of shoes and I nervously put them on. "And the coat, it's still cold out."

"You're taking me outside?" I asked, staring at the heavy coat.

"No! We're going back to the cellar," he hissed sarcastically.

I somehow missed most of the sarcasm and took several steps back. My knees hit a chair and I fell back and onto the floor. He stared at me while I picked myself up, realizing he wasn't serious.

"Not funny," my voice shook.

He ignored me and just gestured for me to hurry up.

I shrugged on the coat and we stepped out into the sunlight. It burned at first, then became more bearable.

When I could see clearly I noticed the grounds of the manor were gorgeous. Here and there flowers bloomed and the grass was rich and green. Off to the side there was a pond surrounded with purple flowers and a few maple trees. It was spring and it was beautiful.

I looked up at Malfoy. not really sure what he was doing bringing me outside.

"I don't know either," his voice sounded defensive. "So don't even ask."

I walked around for a little, basking in the sunlight, and then we went back inside. I ate lunch as usual and he disappeared off somewhere again. And the moment was gone just like that.

Three weeks in captivity, three days in semi freedom, and Malfoy was acting odd. I don't think people changed in that short of time. But maybe they do. It took one incident to make me best friends with Ron and Harry.

But this was Malfoy, the manipulative Slytherin prince.

He didn't change. I covered the bruise on my neck with my hair. He would never change.

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**So I hope you liked it. Keep the reviews coming, I love them and all of my readers. I'll try to update soon. Leave reviews! Have a great day! (You aren't obligated to though, it's just a suggestion)**


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm having more computer problems but I updated as soon as I could. Thank you to those of you who followed and favorited this story. Special thanks to everyone who reviewed they mean so much! Hope you like it!**

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Maybe the house elves had the day off, or maybe Malfoy was getting tired of me, because no food came at the usual time. Last time no food came it was right before Malfoy rescued me. Rescued. That's what I was calling it now even though I didn't know if that's what it was.

I wasn't hungry anyway, so I started another book and read until Malfoy came to get me for dinner.

"You didn't get anything for lunch, did you?" There was something strange in his voice.

I shook my head no.

"Why didn't you come get me?"

"You told me not to leave the room. Besides I don't really get hungry after the last couple weeks," I murmured and looked across the table at him.

He visibly flinched. It was probably just a shudder, at least that's what I told myself.

"Where were the house elves earlier?" I asked.

He sighed again, "After second year we had a little rebellion and now they get one morning off every week."

I smiled, remember Dobby and how he had almost killed Harry. Turns out it took a dragon to do that. I realized that I was starting to become numb to the pain of their deaths, at least when I was awake. But when I slept I was haunted by nightmares.

All day I had tried not to give in to the exhaustion from my sleepless night.

I desperately needed sleep. Funny because I was use to staying up late studying.

"Tired Granger?" Malfoy mocked.

I looked up at his sneer and tried to say something but I couldn't think of anything.

"Okay, let's go."

He pushed his plate away and followed me up the stairs.

"You smell like a fireplace," he said, disgusted.

"It's where I sit all day," I snapped back.

"Stay."

"I'm not a dog," I called after him, but waited in the hallway.

He returned a few seconds later with a bundle of clothes.

"You probably don't want to wear one of my mom's dresses so you can keep wearing my stuff."

That was considerate of him. I took the clothes, and figured he wanted me to take a shower so I went in to the bathroom.

"And don't use my soap! There's other stuff in there!"

He was a little too possessive about his hair products and for a moment I was tempted to dump them down the drain. Then I remembered what position I was in and thought better of it.

I showered quickly and changed. When I exited the bathroom he was still standing outside the door, tapping his foot.

"You talk in the shower," he said.

I looked up at him and he gazed back down at me raising his eyebrows, daring me to question his statement.

"I didn't know. Sorry," I answered and tried to push past him.

He grabbed my arms and held them at my sides. His fingers dug into the bruises and I pulled back.

"You said something about dumping my 'hair products' out?" Malfoy asked, a small bite in his words.

"Well I didn't okay!" I hissed.

He studied my face to see if I was lying, and seemed to come to the conclusion that I was not. I went back to Malfoy's room, and he followed me closely. I curled into a ball in the corner like I had the last three nights and he left to shower, presumably.

Tomorrow would be my fourth day with Malfoy, upstairs, out of the dungeon I realized.

Tomorrow and whatever came with it. Whatever mood Malfoy was in.

Would he be the gentle boy who brought me outside, and seemed genuinely concerned that I hadn't eaten lunch, or the boy with the harsh grating words? The boy who yelled at me and mocked me for my nightmares, or that gently stroked my face and cried? The death eater or the boy without any choices? I didn't know. I didn't know what to think of Malfoy anymore.

He acted so cold, but in mere moments became so concerned. Maybe Harry, Ron and I had been wrong about him. Maybe he didn't want to do this anymore, and possibly he never had.

Was he good all this time? He hadn't actually killed Dumbledore, Snape did that. But he had scarred my face, permanently, and left bruises all over my body. I didn't know what to make of him anymore. I was doubting myself now, and if I couldn't trust myself who could I trust?

"Don't hurt yourself, Granger," Malfoy drawled as he walked into his room.

I looked over at him and immediately rolled so I was facing the corner. He had nothing but a towel wrapped loosely around his waist and his blond hair stuck in all directions.

"Put some clothes on... please," I begged, keeping my eyes trained on the wall.

"If you insist," he answered and I heard the door to his walk in closet shut.

Relieved, I snuggled deeper into the corner. Thunder rumbled outside and I shivered slightly. It was cold against the wall. Then I faded into sleep.

* * *

"I killed them Granger. I watched Weasley's blood soak into the ground as he died. I watched Potter convulsing on the ground, begging to see his Ginny just one last time," Malfoy smirked.

I stood up and ran at him, stumbling over my feet and falling to the ground.

"And now you are going to go the same way as them. Only I'll make your death slower... and more painful. I want to enjoy it," he savored the words.

He took a step towards me and I scrambled back.

"You killed them!"

Another step closer.

"NO!"

My breaths came in short ragged gasps when I woke.

"Granger! Shut the hell up! I would like to sleep, unlike you apparently." Malfoy yelled tossing in his bed.

I bit my lip to stop an onslaught of tears. The cruel boy was back.

"Fine!" I bit out and grabbed the pillow and blanket I was using.

I threw them at his head and stormed out of the room as best I could.

"Granger!" His voice had traces of something like regret but I ignored it.

I flopped onto the couch in front of the fire. His feet started down the stairs then stopped and went back up. I tear traced it's way down my cheek and I choked out a strangled sob.

They're dead. Malfoy is still Malfoy. And I am still alone. I will always be alone.

The tears came strong and fast and I sobbed harder into the arm of the couch as I cried myself back to sleep.

* * *

"RON! HARRY!" I screamed.

Hands were shaking my shoulders

"Granger! It's a dream for gods sake! Just a dream!"

Malfoy's familiar voice cut through the nightmare and I snapped awake. He was standing over me, uncomfortably close, his fingers digging into my shoulders.

"Let go. You're hurting me!" I cried as I tried to shake him off.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth he let go of me. My rich brown eyes met his icy gray ones. We froze and I felt like I was seeing into his soul.

Something was hiding behind the layer of ice. Maybe a bit of regret, a lot of sadness, and anger. His gaze stayed locked on mine until I looked away. Possibly, just maybe, he wasn't as bad as I thought.

"Come with me," he ordered.

I climbed off of the couch, shakily, and trailed after him. He led me through a hallway, we took a right into a room that led into another room then another hallway. A left turn, down a flight of stairs. Right turn down more stairs. More stairs. I recognized the door immediately, it was the one that led into the dungeon.

I shook my head, "I am not going back down there! Malfoy... please!"

He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. I started shaking.

"Calm down, you aren't going back down there! I'm trying to show you something and we just have to walk past that door," he explained.

I felt another tear sliding down my cheek as the panic slowly subsided.

"Please don't do that Granger," he whispered.

Another tear.

Malfoy pulled me into his arms, gently. I would take any type of comfort right now. Any type of human touch, for the first time in almost a month. I buried my face in his chest and he held me closer.

He stepped back suddenly and anger flared in his eyes.

"Sorry," I murmured.

He shook off the moment and led me into a new room where murmured a few incantations and a pensieve emerged from the wall.

"What-" I started and he shushed me.

Delicately he pulled a memory from his temple and placed it in the pensieve.

"Go on, watch," he said. And I put my face into the bowl.

* * *

**I think this is a little longer than most of my chapter and I hope you liked it. Keep reviewing so I know how you guys feel about how it's going so far. Please! The next chapter is in progress so it should be up by the end of the week, maybe even tomorrow.**

**Keep reviewing! Love you guys!**

**Have a great day.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Fast update for you all! I'm being left all these wonderful reviews that motivate me to update really fast. So...**

**I dedicate this chapter to my reviewers: Pug 1998, born4thesaddle, annaea3077, sarahy, makaya, Sandy, Ginny1810, Dorothy Malfoy, SuperWhoLockianGirl, editorofthequibbler, 27, xXxCorsaRoo450xXx, and You know me (yeah I know who you are) as well as the numerous guests who have reviews. **

**But I especially dedicate it to MioSole, MuppetKatie, and Justanothertypicalbookworm and several guests (you know who you are) for leaving very motivational reviews that made me extremely happy!**

** Thank you to everyone who folloewed and favorited this story. I can't list all of you because that would be quite extensive but still, thank you! And also all the readers. I looked at my traffic graph the other day and whoa!**

**Now for the memory...**

* * *

The hazy veil that usually surrounded memories clouded my vision, but unfortunately not enough.

Memory Malfoy stood to one side with his parents and Bellatrix. They were in the dining area where I had been tortured. A lot happened in that room I noted. I looked at the ground and immediately regretted it. Goblins, dead and dying lay everywhere, blood oozing from their wounds onto the wood floor.

Real Malfoy stood at my side and pointed to the center of the room.

Voldemort stepped over Goblin bodies speaking parselmouth to his snake, Nagini. Even I could tell he was angry, about what I didn't know. The whole family seemed to cower into the corner each time he looked their way.

There was a moment of silence before Voldemort spoke again, this time in English.

"Your family has failed the death eaters once again Lucius," Voldemort began.

"My lord-," Lucius interrupted.

"SILENCE! Harry Potter was in this very house with his mudblood friend and the blood traitor and yet I was not summoned! Of course, I shouldn't have expected anything more from you Lucius and Narcissa and especially Draco, but Bella. You were always my most devoted followed and now you have failed me too," his voice was like a snake or a nails scraping on a chalkboard.

It gave me chills.

"But my lord," Bellatrix's sickly sweet voice cut through the silence. "The headline today was about Potter and Weasley's death. In fact Draco used it was used to destroy the mudblood's last bit of fighting spirit this afternoon."

"You fools! Of course they are not dead! Do you think I could let the wizarding world know that Harry Potter broke into your vault, the highest security vault at Gringotts, and stole something of dire importance? Of course not! The two of them are completely safe somewhere unknown!" The calmness of his voice scared me more than if he had yelled.

They're alive! I couldn't fully process how overjoyed I was right now.

Memory Malfoy's eyes widened at his words while I felt a blossom of pride for my two friends in my chest. They had put the pieces together in a way normally only I could. Bellatrix thought we had been in her vault and was panic stricken which meant Voldemort must have had something in there for safekeeping. And what else but a Horcrux? Brilliant boys!

"Come here Draco," Voldemort hissed.

Memory Malfoy took a shaky step towards him.

"Crucio."

The boy dropped to his knees and then to the floor writhing in pain. A scream tore from his throat.

"Perhaps torturing your son will have a greater affect on you then torturing you would," Voldemort's voice projected over Malfoy's screams.

Narcissa's lip quivered and she took a step forward then stepped back thinking better of it. Voldemort lifted the curse and Memory Malfoy lay on the ground twitching with the aftershocks.

"Lucius, Bellatrix, and Narcissa I expect you can handle the extremely simple task of sorting out new security measures at Gringotts. I expect it to take you a week at least. Draco perhaps you can just stay here and continue your schoolwork. I know how important school is to children," Voldemort's last words were mocking. "Come Nagini!"

With that, they disapparated from the room.

"This is your fault Draco! You realize that don't you?" Lucius snarled.

Memory Malfoy still lay on the floor, trembling a little.

"Had you told us if it was Potter we could have summoned the Dark Lord sooner!"

"Lucius," Narcissa warned.

"Crucio! You pathetic excuse for a son, I am embarrassed to call you my heir," Lucius growled, ignoring his wife.

Another scream filled the room and I could only keep my eyes fixed on Malfoy's body twisting in ways it shouldn't on the ground. His father lifted the curse and the memory faded.

I pulled my face from the bowl and looked over at Malfoy. He raised his eyebrows at me.

"They're alive? Malfoy, you lied to me!" I half screamed, half whispered

"I can expl-."

"No you can't!"

"You actually thought I was telling the truth? I'm a Slytherin remember?!" He asked incredulously.

"I didn't think that even you could be that cruel! Even you! Do you have any idea how I felt?"

"In case you didn't pick up on it, I didn't know they weren't actually dead until after I read you that article!"

"You knew for the last three, four days!" I sobbed. "I had no reason to live when I thought they were dead. I have no one except them Malfoy!"

"At least you have parents," he murmured fixing me with a harsh gaze.

"Not anymore."

"What do you mean not anymore?" Malfoy asked.

"Why should I tell you! You lied to me. I should get to lie to you too."

He took several steps towards me, "Don't push it Granger."

With the knowledge that Harry and Ron were alive I didn't feel as afraid of Malfoy as I had just minutes before.

"I just let you in my head," he snapped.

He had a point, "With you lot, the death eaters, killing muggle borns and their families left and right I knew they weren't safe. I... I... erased their memories and sent them away. I knew... knew they couldn't be safe if I could be traced back to them. They... uh... they don't know they have a daughter. If I saw them now they would think I was a complete stranger... and memory charms, well it's not very common that they can be reversed."

"Granger..."

"Don't. Nothing you say will..." I trailed off. "Look, I understand you thought the paper was telling the truth but I don't understand what changed your mind about me. I don't understand why you seem to actually care. I don't understand why you didn't tell me they are alive, but more than that I don't understand why you did. Most importantly I don't understand you!"

Cold tears dripped off of my cheeks and to the floor. A thumb smoothed them away gently and immediately pulled back. I looked up at Malfoy, standing over me.

"But maybe I do know what made you bring me out of the dungeon."

I had started to put the pieces together. My first real tears were the day before I woke up in Malfoy's bed. _Please don't do that Granger._ I remembered him saying that when I cried earlier and then I had cried just now. Tears. My tears are what bothered him. I didn't know why, but I planned on finding out.

"It's my tears isn't it? Don't even answer, I know. But why?"

He didn't want to tell me, I could tell. And I was smart enough to know he wasn't going to.

"It's four in the morning. Can we just go back to bed?"

"We can't. I'll stay on the couch since you can't handle my nightmares," I snapped.

"The idea of showing you that memory was so you wouldn't have nightmares and just maybe I could get a goodnight's sleep for the first time in almost a mo- week," he said.

"I'll stay on the couch."

He sighed and led me back to the room with the fireplace. I stretched back out on the couch and he left for his room.

Ron and Harry are alive and hiding somewhere, waiting for their chance. If they destroyed the horcrux they found in Bellatrix's vault that meant two were left. I almost cried tears of joy. Seven years of adventures and they had survived a month, almost, without me. They were alive. No more nightmares.

I needed an escape plan. Of course, escape was probably next to impossible but I was Hermione Granger, I'd figure something out.

Something was still nagging at my mind though.

Of course I was still Malfoy's, prisoner for all intents and purposes. But it was more than that, that troubled me. I think I was starting to care about him.

Despite my best attempts to ignore it, I had seen what Voldemort did to him. I had seen what his own father had done to him. No wonder he was a bully at school, he was hiding the pain he endured here behind that mask of cruelty.

I knew what the cruciatus curse felt like, and I would wish it on no one, except perhaps Bellatrix and Voldemort.

I pitied Draco for the way he was treated. I pitied him for having this cold empty house to call home. But mostly I pitied him because none of this was his fault. I was realizing he didn't have a choice whether or not to join the deatheaters.

As I fell asleep I realized my subconscious had used his first name. Draco, not Malfoy.

* * *

**So the idea was to give Hermione some hope and let you all know Harry and Ron are alive. I hope that I did successfully. So there you go! I consider this a turning point in their relationship but not the main turning point. I like to think of the next chapter as that but I won't really know until I've finished writing it.**

**I am so excited for the next chapter though. I've been looking forward to writing it literally since I started this story. I consider that their turning point. ****I might have to split it into two chapters. **

****Also, yes I have a story about the tears.****

**Anyway, have a great day! keep leaving reviews and I'll keep updating often! Hugs!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Quick actually important thing, in chapter four I described one of Hermione's bruises as going down her left arm. That should be right arm so I fixed it in the chapter but just to clarify. I realized her scar from Bellatrix is on the left so my bad. Sorry!**

**Thank you for more beautiful reviews, I love you all! I now have more followers and favorites for this story than my other one and this is still two chapter shorter than that! Yay! **

**I'm really looking forward to this chapter, I hope it's as good as I think it is. It is a bit longer than my usual chapters so I hope it was worth the wait.**

* * *

I had thought, like Malfoy, that once I knew Harry and Ron were alive my nightmares would just go away. And they did, at least the ones about my best friends dying did. They were replaced with a new terror that in some ways was worse than before.

Ron and Harry didn't make an appearance but Malfoy did. If I had to venture a guess the same dream was going to haunt me for days to come, and months after that.

* * *

Malfoy stood over me, holding his wand and a knife.

"You thought I actually cared? Filthy little mudblood!" He snarled taking a step towards me.

I shrunk back into the corner of the dungeon, "You promised! Malfoy please! You said you wouldn't hurt me!"

"You thought I was telling the truth? I was a Slytherin remember!? You we're supposed to be the brightest witch of our age, but I suppose even a mudblood can fake it for a while," he laughed, taking another step forward. "Crucio!"

"MALFOY!" I screamed as agony ripped through the whole of my being. "Please!"

"Granger! Granger, for god's sake wake up!"

Reality came crashing back and I sat up suddenly, bouncing my head off of something. Something dripped onto my face, blood I realized. Malfoy spewed a stream of obscenities at me that I couldn't make out because he was clutching his face.

My eyes started to burn with tears, and they streamed down my face. Last night I had no fear of the blond boy, but my fearlessness had disappeared with the arrival of my nightmares. Lights flicked on and burned my eyes and I realized I wasn't on the couch anymore. At some point I had been moved back up to Malfoy's room.

Speak of the devil, Malfoy glared at me and I shot him a sad, and angry, and questioning look. I'm not sure how I managed that in one look, but I did. In response he pulled his hand away from his face. Blood glistened on his face and hand, and more dripped from his nose.

I must have hit him in the face when I sat up,

"You have done so much damage to my face! Third year and now this!" He sounded angry.

I cowered deeper into my corner while he pulled out his wand and fixed his face. What a drama queen! His nose wasn't even broken, it was just bleeding all over both of us. Of course I didn't voice my opinion, but at least I thought it.

"Why... what... why'd you bring me back up here? I thought you couldn't stand my screaming?" I snapped, but my voice wavered.

He sat on the corner of his bed and gazed at me. "When you scream from down there I still can hear it so then I have to walk all the way down the stairs and shut you up. At least if you're up here I only have to walk across the room."

I wiped the blood and tears off my face. Malfoy pointed his wand at my face and I flinched, hitting my head against a wall.

"Hold still!" He hissed and I froze.

Nonverbally, he cleaned off my face.

"Thanks," I whispered and came out of the corner, not the whole way, but a little. "And sorry for hitting you... just now. Not for third year."

He laughed sourly and flopped back.

"Go to bed Granger, and try to keep your mouth shut."

He threw a pillow at me, the same one I threw at him earlier tonight. Everything had transpired in just one night I realized with a shock. The blanket was already in my corner and I curled back up and fell into a mercifully peaceful sleep.

* * *

"Rise and shine! It's a beautiful day! And also well after noon," Malfoy hissed, sarcasm dripping from his words.

I heard thunder boom outside and sighed, a habit that I was picking up from him unfortunately. Wincing, I stood and followed him slowly down the stairs. The floor was not the most comfortable place I had ever slept, it also wasn't the least comfortable. The Weasley's house could get crowded fast, and sleeping in a tent in the forest, no matter how magically enhanced, took its toll after a while. I broke into a wide smile remembering that they were alive. Ron and Harry are alive!

"What's wrong with you?" Malfoy snapped.

"They're alive," I grinned.

"And somehow you still managed to keep me up most of the night."

My smile faded. Malfoy glanced over at me as I sat down, across the table from him.

He was about to say something when two house elves appeared holding plates of food and set them in front of us. They were gone as quickly as they had come and so were Malfoy's words. He set about buttering a piece of toast, making a point not to look at me.

After a few pieces of toast he was forced to look up, unable to find another excuse to keep his eyes down. Luckily I didn't need a reason to not look at him, so I kept my eyes fixed on my plate, trying to make my bacon as interesting as possible.

"What's on your neck Granger?" Malfoy asked, breaking the tension filled silence.

I'd forgotten to cover the bruise. Hastily, I brushed my hair over it.

"Nothing," I answered quickly, too quickly.

"What is it?"

I shook my head. He couldn't see them. I didn't want him seeing them. There was no logic behind my thoughts, I just didn't want him seeing them.

"Granger," he warned.

"No!" I snapped at him.

"Oh... does the Gryffindor princess have a hickey?" He asked mockingly. "Not sure how you would have gotten it since I would never, but you never know. It could be-"

"Shut the hell up Malfoy!" I screamed. How could he possibly not know what he had done to me?

"I have a first name you know."

"At least you get to hear yours occasionally. I haven't heard mine in a month!"

Malfoy pushed his chair back and walked over to me. He seemed to have missed the point of my words. I stood too. Every step he took towards I took another step back. Then I hit the wall with my back and I had no where else to go. Malfoy rested his left hand on the wall and leaned against it, caging me into a corner.

His hand brushed my hair away and I pushed myself against the wall as much as I could.

"Granger... what is this?" His voice sounded choked.

Fingers deftly unbuttoned the top two buttons of the shirt and tenderly slid it over my shoulder. I turned my head to the corner, terrified and not wanting to meet Malfoy's eyes. My body shook uncontrollably and I squeezed my eyes shut. He gasped and I felt a tear trickling down my cheek, he'd seen.

Cold fingers ran along my neck and I flinched. They traveled over my shoulder, lightly brushing all of the bruise. He left his hand resting on my collarbone and I slowly turned my head back to face him.

"Malfoy," I whimpered.

"Are there more?" He asked, not lifting his gaze from my neck.

I nodded yes and he finally met my eyes.

"Can I see them?"

I didn't want him to see them, any of them, but he had seen one. What harm could showing him the rest possibly do? I buttoned one button of the shirt and he removed his hand, no need to hide my neck with the collar anymore, then slowly, with shaking hands, I lifted my shirt to just past my belly button. Three new bruises were exposed now.

I waited anxiously for his response. With one arm he swept my legs out from underneath me and with the other caught me as I fell backwards so he was carrying me. I didn't protest, something told me I shouldn't.

He carried me to the room with the fireplace and set me on the couch, kneeling down and lifting my shirt back to where it was before. His hands slowly traced the two bruises on my stomach and the exposed part of the one along my side. By this point I was shaking as if Bellatrix had walked through the door.

"Please don't tell me there's more," he begged and pulled my shirt back down.

My eyes flicked to my right arm and he unbuttoned it and rolled up the sleeve. The bruise stretched from mid forearm to mid bicep on the outer arm. He sighed and looked at me. I held back a sob.

"Hermione... did... did I do this?" He murmured.

"What did you just call me?" I looked at him, as the strangest look filled his gray eyes.

"Did I do it?" Malfoy repeated, more insistently this time.

"Yes."

"I... god I didn't realize. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to... Why didn't you tell me?" He stuttered.

If it wasn't Malfoy I was sitting in front of I would say his eyes looked pained to see me like this.

"What about your left arm?" he asked.

As I pulled my arm back he caught my wrist and unbuttoned the sleeve.

"Don't look!" I cried but it was too late.

'Mudblood' shone pale against my skin. Malfoy's mouth widened as he stared down at the hideous scar. He pulled the sleeve back down and dropped my hand.

He pulled out his wand and I backed away from him, as much as the couch would allow.

"I will never, ever hurt you again. Just let me heal them," Malfoy said. "I can't heal your cheek, or your... arm, but I can at least do the bruises."

I relaxed a little but shook my head.

"You can't."

"Why not?"

"Remember how I said I had a potion in my water?" When he nodded I continued. "I don't remember what it's called, but I read about it in _Moste_ _Potente_ _Potions_ during second year. It's designed to prevent internal injuries but the side effect is that all external injuries cannot be healed with magic. Most witches and wizards use it as a way of keeping a victim alive by preventing internal bleeding and such but in constant pain because their external wounds can't be healed by magic."

I felt almost like my old self, spewing out facts I had read in a book.

Malfoy tucked his wand away again and left for a moment. When he returned, he was carrying a bowl.

"It won't make them disappear but it will at least soothe them," he showed me the translucent paste that the bowl was full of.

I recognized it immediately of course. Madam Pomfrey used it to soothe patients that didn't need attention right away so she could focus on more critical injuries.

"I can do-," I started.

"I will," he insisted.

I lay on my back and exposed my shoulder again. As Malfoy rubbed the paste on the bruise a cool sensation spread through my shoulder. It didn't take all the pain away, but most of it.

"Why are you doing this? And please just tell me," I pleaded.

"I guess I have to now."

I wasn't sure what he meant but I let him talk.

"I had hoped the only damage I had done was to your face. Of course, I wish now that I had never cut you in the first place, and especially not with one of Bellatrix's enchanted knives. But if there had to be something I hoped that was it." He moved on to my arm, rubbing the soothing paste along it gently. "I never realized what I had done. And all those times I wasn't so gentle with you just makes it worse. Grabbing your arm, throwing you over my shoulder the other day, the tumble down the stairs."

So it wasn't actually what I meant, I had wanted an explanation about the tears, but this was something. He wished he had never hurt me. Malfoy finished with the paste and put the bowl off to the side.

Something wet dripped onto my shirt and soaked through to my skin, and then something else. I looked up at Malfoy. He was crying. I reached up to brush the tears away instinctively, but he stood up and walked hurriedly from the room.

The moment was gone, but I would remember it.

* * *

**Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed writing it. I like to think of it as the turning point for the two of them but you are free to have your own interpretation.**

**Please keep following, favoriting, and especially reviewing this story. I already have more follows and favorites on this story than my other one that is two chapters longer than this so hooray! Have a great day/night everyone!**

**TONY STARK AND PEPPER POTTS (PEPPERONI) FANS: My friend, kissmyquiver, is writing an amazing fanfiction about the two of them. It is called _Rescue _and it is only two chapters so far but she is good at updating on time. It would mean a lot to her if you read it!  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Oh my gosh you guys! I'm getting amazing reviews from you, thank you so much! Thanks to all the people who followed and favorited this as well. Here you go...**

* * *

The storm continued to rage outside as I started into a new book of fairy tales. Each of them had a happy ending, and it gave me hope that just maybe my story would end that way too. When I finished the volume, around dinner time I estimated, I started to reread.

"Again Granger?"

I glanced up from the story, and looked at Malfoy walking through the door.

"Yes," I answered, noticing a bubbling cauldron and potions book levitating behind him.

He sat down on the couch and set the cauldron on the table with a heavy sigh. I ignored him, trying not to remember his tears earlier, and turned the page.

"Damn it!" He yelled out a couple more profanities.

I turned away from the book and looked over at him.

"What did I do wrong?" He asked.

"Are you asking me?"

"Yes," he snapped, exasperated.

I stood up and noticed Malfoy studying the areas of my body that we knew were covered in bruises. He turned the book towards me as I knelt down in front of the table. The recipe was for Death Cap Draught. I recognized the yellowing pages of the thick book. It was _Moste Potente Potions. _

The potion was a simple poison and was supposed to be dark red when complete. Malfoy's was more of a sickly orangish yellow and much runnier than it was supposed to be.

With a faint smile I studied the recipe, trying to figure out what he could have possibly done wrong, not even bothering to wonder why he was making such a nasty potion. With Snape running Hogwarts, I doubted potions lessons were one of the greater evils.

"You read fairy tales?" Malfoy laughed, holding up my book skeptically.

"I find them soothing," I answered, not taking my eyes off the book but staying aware that he had somehow moved from the couch to my place on the floor without me noticing.

"Why?"

"Because there's always a happy ending. No matter how bad things get the protagonist always wins in the end. There are a few notable exceptions of course, but in general."

"The villain never gets a happy ending though," I detected sadness in Malfoy's voice and I turned to look at him.

"But they can choose to become good, and if they do then they get a happy ending."

"I guess that's why they're called fairy tales, because that isn't how it works in real life," he slammed the book shut and I went back to studying the recipe.

"I have seen some stupid mistakes made by Ron and Harry but this... this tops them all," I said when I realized what he'd done.

He peered down at the book from over my shoulder and I scooted a little bit away from him.

"Step eleven. Add two stems of the death cap mushroom and stir three times counter clockwise." I read and he only looked at me. "You added one and stirred clockwise."

"Well can you fix it?" He snapped.

"Why should I?"

"Because I need to send it in the next hour and if I don't I'll be tortured."

"Should I care?" I asked but I realized that I did care.

I never again wanted to see his face twisted in pain the way it was in his memory.

"No, but you do," he responded.

"Put in another stem and stir six times counter clockwise. Add a vial of water, stir two times clockwise and add two mouse tails," I ordered, relenting and he summoned the ingredients and did as I said.

He spooned the now dark red potion into a flask and tied it to an owl, shooing it out the window and into the storm.

"Dinner, now... Granger."

I shut the book and started to take in what he had said about fairy tales not being real life. He was right of course, I knew that, and I knew my story probably wouldn't have a happy ending. But what he said about no happy endings for villains bothered me. It was obvious he considered himself a villain.

I followed him into the dining area and we sat in awkward silence eating. Before he could protest I inhaled my food and went upstairs for a shower, hoping he would finish eating and not creep outside the door. The shower was over practically before it had started.

A new change of clothes waited on the counter and I dressed quickly and left running right into Malfoy as he came up the stairs.

"Watch it!" He snarled.

I stepped out of his way.

"For a while there I thought you were changing. I guess I was wrong," I bit out.

If I could come up with a comeback I might as well use it.

He turned on me, "Yes you were! You are still nothing but..." he stopped.

"But what!? What Malfoy!? A mudblood!? Is that what you are trying to say?" Angry tears filled my eyes and I realized a moment later they weren't out of anger, I was upset because I had let myself believe that he could possibly care about me. "Thank you for reminding me because I wasn't sure that my scar did that well enough without you too!" I screamed.

"I didn't mean for that to come out like that," he glanced at the floor, away from my tears.

"Yes! Yes you did."

He looked afraid for a moment, but that was all it took for me to realize what this was.

"That's what this is. You brought me out of the dungeon for whatever reason but you never realized that maybe, just maybe you would see what you did and actually regret it. That you would care!" I realized.

Malfoy put his hands on the wall on either side of me, "You're wrong! I don't care about-"

"You keep telling yourself that, because I know you do. I saw you cry."

With that I ducked under his arm and into his bedroom.

I'd screwed up. If he by some chance cared he would never admit it now. Stop crying I told myself. That seemed to be all I did these days. With tears in my eyes, I fell asleep.

* * *

"Malfoy!" I awoke with a scream.

Sobbing from my nightmare I lay back down, hoping I could fake sleep before Malfoy could yell at me for something I couldn't help.

"Get up Granger," he commanded.

Too late. I stood and he pointed to the edge of the bed where I sat down, staring at him expectantly. His hair reflected the moonlight, the only light in the room.

"I am not going to hurt you again Hermione. I promise."

"The word of a Slytherin means so much to me!" I cried.

"I'm going to tell you a story, and you are going to be quiet and listen through the whole thing understand?"

When I nodded and he sat down next to me and I moved as far away from him as I could.

"Once upon a time there was an arrogant pure blooded, blonde boy who thought he was superior to all others. There was also a brown haired muggle born witch who beat him at everything, except flying," he began. "They went to the same school and hated each other, naturally. Then one day the blonde boy got a hippogriff sentenced to death and the day of the execution the brown haired girl hit him, because she loved the hippogriff. During the execution the blonde boy watch the girl cry in her friend's arms."

This sounded a lot like our years at Hogwarts and I rolled my eyes.

"Then the next year their school had this dance, along with two other schools. Of course they didn't go together because their hate ran too deep. He saw her come down the stairs though, looking more beautiful than he had ever seen, but he didn't say anything to her. The next time he saw her she was dancing with a famous Quidditch player, having a grand time. Then the last time he saw her she was arguing with one of her closest friends and then he left and she sat on the stairs and cried the rest of the night away."

I tried to ask him why he was repeating my life story to me but he held up a hand.

"The blonde boy wanted to go comfort her but he didn't because he was better than her and she deserved it. At least that's what he told himself. In reality he was terrified how his father would act if he knew they had associated with each other. If he knew how bad the boy wanted to get to know the brightest witch of their age."

He looked over at me expectantly and I knew immediately that he had just told me the story of why my tears bothered him, and he had told it in the form of a fairy tale. I realized he was making me the princess, the one who no matter how bad things got always got a happy ending, and in doing so made himself the villain.

"You'll get a happy ending, Draco."

"Did you just call me Draco?" He asked turning to look at me.

"I don't know. Did you call me Hermione earlier?"

* * *

**So I was thinking of writing this fic from Draco's point of view and maybe publishing that as a separate story. If you would read something like that please leave a comment. Thank you all again. I forgot to thank the people, guests and people who don't follow this, for reading as well.**

**Have a great night and please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A little longer than usual. As always thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, or favorited this. I love you guys! And thanks to all the readers who havn't but still stick with the story!**

* * *

I made it through the last few hours of the night without any dreams. After Dra- Malfoy had refused to answer my question I had returned to my corner and gone back to bed.

For once I was the first one awake so I took advantage of the silence to have a long, hard talk with myself. I wasn't going insane, it just meant I needed to concentrate. I needed to figure out what was wrong with myself. In five days, today was day six of upstairs confinement, I had, at some point, started thinking of Draco Malfoy as Draco, not Malfoy. It was fine, I guess, as long as it was only in my thoughts. When we spoke I needed to call him Malfoy, or did I? Hadn't he used my first name a few times? Sure he'd denied it, but I knew he had.

And, he had been watching me since third year. I was stuck between feeling that it was really sweet or really creepy. For some reason I was stuck on it being sweet. He had cried over me yesterday, when he saw the bruises. Obviously he didn't know what he had done until that moment. He had even stopped correcting me when I referred to his basement as a dungeon.

He'd used some of that soothing paste on me, and I knew from being fugitives with Harry and Ron that it didn't come cheap, even for a Malfoy. Why did he even have it in the first place?

Of course, I realized, remembering the memory he had shown me. For the first time since that night I really thought hard about what I had seen. At first I had only been focused on how angry I was that he had lied to me, and the hope that had returned with the news of Harry and Ron's successful robbing of Bellatrix's vault and I had thought about it only a tiny bit. Now I could look at the bigger picture. Draco had been tortured... by his father.

I felt a twinge of pity for him. I wish I had said something to him that night, something comforting perhaps, or maybe just a hug. Oh god! What was I even thinking? Hugging Draco? As if he would let himself be comforted in any way. He just had the paste to make everything hurt a little less and he never had to let anyone know about it.

And for the love of god, stop feeling like you are about to cry over Draco Malfoy, I ordered myself as my eyes started to burn.

"Seriously, if you keep thinking that hard you're going to burst an artery," Draco interrupted my thoughts with his usual mocking drawl.

I sat up and looked at him and found myself unable to look away. After several awkward moments I tore my eyes away and looked down at the floor.

He climbed out of bed and left. A few seconds later I heard water running and figured it was safe to leave the room.

I made it safely downstairs, without assistance. The house elves, I had figured out that there were three, were setting breakfast on the table as I rounded the corner. The moment they saw me they hurriedly set everything on the table and scurried away.

I sat down at the table alone, and waited for Draco.

"You waited?" He asked and the shock was apparent in his voice.

"No need to sound so surprised," I answered, watching him sit down. "It was the least I could do."

He looked at his plate awkwardly. We both knew I was talking about what he had told me last night. How he had basically admitted he had cared.

Draco reached for the bacon just as I did. Our hands brushed and he grabbed my wrist. My eyes widened and I froze, not sure what was about to happen. He pushed the sleeve of my shirt up.

"They're doing better aren't they?" He sounded distressed, like he needed to be reassured that they were healing.

"Slowly, but yes," I answered, pulling my hand back and pushing the sleeve back down.

"I... sorry. I didn't even think that I could do that to a person," he murmured as he put a few pieces of bacon on my plate.

I looked at him, and flicked my eyes between my bacon and his eyes.

"I wasn't raised in a barn. I do have some manners."

I grinned slightly. Draco piled his plate with food and practically inhaled it.

"See? Manners."

I actually laughed and he dropped his fork onto the table.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing."

I sighed and finished eating. He clasped his hands together and watched me.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Draco, I survived for three weeks on my own while I was tortured. Believe me, I'm feeling a lot more okay now than I was then."

"What was the first word you said, Granger?" He smirked.

I realized I had let his first name make its way into my speech.

"Well, I'm done," I shot up and left to read in the fireplace room, doing my best to avoid answering.

Luckily he didn't come try to force me to tell him, probably because he already knew what I said.

I started into a biography of the four founders of Hogwarts, which was quite interesting. I was tempted to take notes but I knew I would never need them, so I settled for just reading it.

Around lunch time Draco walked in, with a sandwich. He set it on the table in front of me and handed me a book.

"How do you pronounce that spell?"

I looked at the spell.

"Car-pay re-track-tum. Emphasize the 'car' and 'track'. CARpe reTRACtum," I explained.

He nodded and pointed his wand at one of the books I had piled up.

"Carpe retractum."

Ropes shot out from his wand, wrapped around the book, and pulled it towards him. He looked surprised and levitated the book back where it belonged.

"Eat... and thanks," he said and left.

I smiled. It was nice to be helping someone with schoolwork again. For a minute I wondered if he had asked me because he knew how much I enjoyed it. It was hardly a difficult spell. A little tricky on pronunciation perhaps, but didn't require a lot of focus. Then again, I probably wasn't the best judge of hard versus easy spells.

I ate the sandwich, which was delicious, and decided on a quick nap. I didn't know why I got tired so fast, it's not like I was doing anything. Maybe it was how hard my body was working to heal itself. I laid the book on the table and stretched out across the couch. No nightmares. No nightmares. I repeated to myself. No nightmares.

* * *

Draco's hands were at my throat, squeezing. My head hit the wall once, twice. I couldn't breath. He was going to kill me.

"Draco! Please let go!"

I broke into a fit of coughing, gasping for air but unable to get it.

"Draco! I can't breath," I choked out.

"Hermione! Please wake up! It's okay, you're safe, you're safe," Someone called.

It's not real.

"Hermione!"

I surfaced from the dream, staring into Draco's eyes. I felt my neck, no bruises. Tears streaked their way down my cheeks. Draco turned and walked out of the room. I tried to call after him but I was crying to hard. I wanted him to stay. I wanted a hug, a little comfort.

I sat up and pulled my knees to my chest, shaking and breathing heavily sobbing into my knees. Several minutes passed and the tears weren't slowing, even a little. An arm wrapped over my shoulder.

Draco was incredibly warm, and surrounded by an aroma of chocolate. He pulled me closer and I buried my face in his chest.

"Shhh. It's okay. It's okay," he murmured, stroking my hair.

I didn't even pull away. I couldn't control my dreams but I wasn't going to be scared of him anymore when I was awake. After a couple minutes my tears started to slow and I pulled away from him.

Draco forced a warm mug of hot cocoa into my hands. It was piled with whipped cream and topped with a Hershey kiss. I took a tentative sip. Not only was it the perfect drinking temperature, it was delicious.

His thumb brushed away the few remaining tears. He handed me a chocolate chip cookie.

"What is this?" I whispered.

"You're right, I do care about you," he admitted.

"I've picked up on that. But you brought me a cookie and hot chocolate."

"That I made myself. Cookies are not easy to make, but hot cocoa has always been a specialty of mine," he added proudly, as if his ego wasn't big enough.

"Why?"

He sighed, "That muggle book with the depressed donkey, and the blond bear that's addicted to honey..."

"Winnie the Pooh?"

"Yeah, Winnie the Pooh. According to that aren't you supposed to give upset people a cookie and a kiss or something? There's your cookie, and that's a Hershey kiss on your hot chocolate."

I released a tiny squeak of laughter, "It's actually when you get out of the bathtub, but this works for me. When did you read Winnie the Pooh?"

"My mom used to read it to me when I was little. It was her way of defying Lucius, normally after he beat me."

I flinched at the casual way he said those words.

"What are your nightmares about?"

"You. Hurting me. In this particular one you were... choking me, and I couldn't breath and I thought you cared but I guess that I am just afraid that you don't really care and that this is all just a sick trick to break me even more."

He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. I looked up into his eyes.

"It isn't a trick Hermione. I promise."

As I gazed into his eyes I knew he was not lying. He cared.

* * *

**I was a little unsure about whether or not I'm taking this too fast but it's chapter 12. About time he says he cares in my mind.**

**About writing this in Draco's POV I will do that! Once I get to 60 reviews. Ultimately my goal is 100 but 60 and I will do Draco's POV.**

**Next chapter is the biggest change I think! I am so excited to write it, I can't even.**

**Please keep reviewing I love them! If I can have a quick heart to heart with you guys... I really want to be an author of my own novels and these reviews are not only motivation for this story but also for my writing in general which means a lot to me. More than I can possibly express here.**

**Have a great night everyone!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Gosh guys! So many reviews for the last chapter! Thank you all so much! I love you. I got tons of new followers and favoriters (is that actually a word?) so thanks to all of you too! Readers who don't do any of that stuff thank you as well!**

**A few more song suggestions: Timebomb by Pink (thank you for the suggestion person that knows who they are. I haven't gotten a chance to listen to the other because my computer is crap but I at least listened to this one), and Hurricane by 30 Seconds to Mars (watch a lyric video because I guess the music video has some 'interesting' content)**

**Enjoy guys.**

* * *

I stayed in his arms for a few more minutes before he had to leave to do his schoolwork. The rest of my day was spent reading in front of the fire and thinking about escaping. It seemed impossible, but if Draco cared as much as he said he did maybe he would help me. Of course he would be tortured and I didn't want that to happen, because, as weird as I felt about it, I cared about him a little. Okay, more than a little.

We didn't eat our regular dinner, instead choosing to munch on leftover soup. Apparently when the house elves made me soup they made giant pots of it, and I only ate a bowl of it, so there was plenty leftover.

After a rushed dinner he left for wherever it was that he practiced for school and I stretched out in front of the fire to wait for him.

"Hey Herm- Granger! What name did you scream during your nightmare?" He yelled from somewhere upstairs.

I sighed. He had asked me this three times over dinner. Three!

"I'm still not answering you!" I shouted back.

"I know what you said!" He answered.

"Then stop asking!" I rolled onto my back and sat up.

This type of arguing sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure what it sounded like yet.

"What did you start to call me when you started this... again!" I called.

"Herm," he answered, from right behind me.

I spun around, startled.

"Tell me when you sneak up on me," I hissed.

"I'm sneaking up on you... you know, that kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?" Draco drawled.

I realized what this sounded like then, flirting. Oh god, I was flirting with Draco Malfoy.

"It's eleven. I figured you would be in bed by now," he said.

"I was wait-, nevermind," I realized how bad that would sound, but I didn't stop on time.

"You were doing what?" He grinned, knowing full well what I was going to say.

"Stop that!"

"What... smiling? Why?"

"It's unnerving," I said.

He rolled his eyes and beckoned for me to follow him upstairs.

I curled into my corner and he climbed into bed, just as a clap of thunder signalled the start of another storm. Draco glanced down at me and opened his mouth then shut it just as quickly.

"Goodnight," I said.

"Night."

* * *

"No, no! I won't do it! Please, please... NO! Don't touch her!"

My eyes snapped open adjusting to the darkness of the room. A bolt of lightning illuminated it but only for a moment, to fast to make out anything. After several seconds I realized I hadn't been woken up by my nightmares. I hadn't even had nightmares. But then what had woken me up?

"NO! Hurt me instead, just don't kill her!" Draco screamed.

Scared for him, I climbed to my feet and stood next to the bed.

"Hermione, you can't die, you can't," he sobbed, still asleep.

"Malfoy! Malfoy!" I called putting my right knee on the bed and leaning over him.

He continued crying.

"Draco! It's okay, it's a nightmare, just a nightmare! Wake up," I reached out and brushed his platinum blonde hair away from his eyes. "Draco."

"Hermione," he drew in a sharp breath, surfacing from the dream. "You're alright, oh god!"

Unexpectedly, he pulled me against his chest. I lost my already precarious balance and tumbled the rest of the way into his bed. The whole weight of my body was pressed against his chest, considering the circumstances it wasn't very much.

"Draco, are-"

"Shh," he interrupted. "Can you just breath... a little deeper... please?"

My eyes narrowed curiously at his strange request but I did it, figuring it wasn't going to hurt me in any way. Of course I had forgotten that breathing deeply hurt due to the bruises, but I continued anyway. It reminded me of when I had gone to the doctor as a child and they had put the stethoscope on my back and told me to breath so they could check my lungs.

One of his arms kept me against him and his other hand felt along my neck.

He wanted to know I was alive I realized. I took his hand and moved it to the spot on my neck I knew he would find a pulse, just below my right jaw.

I was aware that I was very much on top of Draco Malfoy while he was laying in his bed and hugging me. After another minute or so he let me go and I sat up. I was sitting at his right side and he was laying on his back, trembling.

"Do you want to, I don't know, talk about it?" I asked gently.

His only response was a sniffle. Another lightning flash illuminated the room and I could only just make out tears running down his cheeks. He propped himself up on his arm so he was facing me. I reached my hand out but abruptly pulled it back. My feelings for him, had grown stronger than my fear so I reached out again and wiped the tears off with my fingers.

He kept shaking and I brushed his hair out of his eyes again.

"He killed you," Draco whispered suddenly, his voice hoarse with tears. "He killed you. My father. And he made me watch but there was nothing... nothing I could do to stop him. I begged him... to kill me instead but... but he wouldn't."

The true depth of his feelings for me hit me like a boulder. I was a hundred percent sure now that this was the truth, because nightmares like that were extremely hard to fake.

"Did I wake you up? Or did you have your own?" He asked, after several minutes of silence had passed.

He seemed to have stopped crying and had calmed down considerably.

"You woke me up," I responded, with the faintest hint of a smile. "I stop having nightmares and now you start."

There was more thunder and lightning from outside, and I caught a glimpse of a smile ghosting over his lips. He knew I was joking.

An awkward moment where we just stared at each other passed. I shook my head as if clearing my mind and rolled to the edge of the bed and stood up, ready to return to my corner. An involuntary shudder ran through me, and I realized just how cold I was on the floor. Nothing got past Draco. He grabbed my hand.

"You're freezing," he stated.

"I'm fine," I insisted.

"No you're not, your hand is like ice."

I shrugged, unsure of what he was going for here.

"Come here," he ordered.

"What?"

He climbed out of bed and used his wand to coat it in various blankets, all Slytherin colors and pulled them back.

"Get it in the bed."

"No," I shook my head, even though it looked so warm and inviting.

"Granger-"

"Oh cut the crap. We both know that at some point we started using each others first names. It's too much work to remember to use last names," I sighed.

"Hermione, so help me I will tie you to that bed."

I inhaled sharply and took a step back.

He sighed, "That is not what I meant. Please, we both know you want to get into my bed," he considered his words for a moment. "That came out wrong too. You know what I mean."

I crossed my arms defiantly, but was laughing inside at how that had sounded.

"Hermione," he was not going to give up.

"Fine, but don't you dare touch me!" I snapped and crawled into the huge bed.

I could almost hear Draco rolling his eyes at me as he lay down and pulled the covers over both of us.

"Better?" He asked.

I sighed, absorbing all the warmth I could, but still finding it not enough somehow.

"You're still cold aren't you?" He pressed.

"A little."

I was facing away from him when something pressed against my back. I flinched away.

"It's just my back. Stay calm."

Draco radiated heat like a furnace, it was actually a little scary. None the less I was warmer than I had ever been at night here.

As I fell asleep, my back pressed against the back of my former enemy, the last thing I was aware of was the smell of his pillow. It smelled like two things. The final scent from love potion I had smelled during sixth year in potions class, and hadn't said because I didn't know what it was... and Draco's hair.

* * *

**I hope you liked it. Little mini kinda but not really spoiler, the Malfoy Manor isn't going to be the setting for much longer. Yay or maybe not?**

**Parade season for Marching Band has started and so has memorizing music. Updates might take a little longer because of that but I'm going to do my best to stay with the current pace. I couldn't help but incorporate a little band humor into this chapter. To be perfectly honest, I have a really dirty mind, especially for a girl. Marching Band can change a person.**

**On a total tangent, my phone went through the washing machine Sunday night so I am hoping for a smartphone now since the contract is up which means really frequent updates.**

**Long Author's Notes today guys. Sorry! Have a great day/night/life.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ten reviews on the last chapter! I love you guys so much I can't even right now. One more review until I put up this story from Draco's point of view which probably means later today. That's my goal since you are all so amazing! The next chapter of this is about half done so I'll shoot for an update tomorrow. Enjoy.**

* * *

I was woken by the sound of rain on the roof. It was still storming outside, and yet I was incredibly warm. An arm was casually draped over my shoulders as I lay in the bed and I could feel Draco's stomach rising and falling against my back.

I inhaled sharply, hit with the realization that at some point he had rolled over and pulled me against him... and I didn't mind. I opened my eyes.

It was lighter in his room than last night and I could just make out the black ink staining Draco's arm.

_Go on mudblood, talk._

No! I was safe.

_The dark mark shone on his forearm as he rolled up his sleeves, picking up a knife._

I pushed myself back, so I was pressed even harder against Draco.

_A knife ripping apart the flesh on my cheek and the mark on his arm hovering above my face._

"Hermione?" He asked blearily.

"Draco! Draco!" I kept pushing back.

He pulled my closer,with his left arm.

"Your... your arm! Draco the mark!" I whimpered.

He released me and yanked his sleeve over his Dark Mark. I took a couple of calming breaths.

"I'm sorry, I... forgot," he murmured.

"It's okay. I... I overreacted, that's all," I said sadly and rolled so I was facing him and moved back, creating space between us.

"You didn't overreact, I shouldn't have let that arm so close to you," he paused. "Not to be insensitive but, why does it..."

He trailed off but I knew what he was trying to ask.

"The night I was captured, you... I saw the mark when you were... my face," The sentence made no sense but he seemed to understand anyway.

Neither of us spoke until my breathing had steadied and my heart stopped threatening to pop out of my chest.

"Can I see it?" I requested.

He raised his eyebrows at me but pushed up his sleeve slowly. I rolled over and turned on a lamp on the nightstand. When I turned back around I saw it clearly for the first time. The ink was dark black on his forearm, a sickeningly obvious reminder of what he was.

Draco sat up and went to pull his sleeve back down but I shook my head and sat up. My back pressed against the cold wall, a stark difference from Draco's back last night.

"Draco, can I please touch it?"

He yanked his arm back, "What?!"

"I might not be so scared of it if I know it's a physical thing," I explained, silently willing him to understand.

He gave me a look and reached his left arm across his body. With my pointer finger I gently touched the skull. The snake writhed under my touch and I flinched.

"Hermione," Draco started.

I ignored him and my fear. My fingers traced the black ink tenderly as it wriggled on his arm, and I felt his eyes boring into my forehead. I looked up at him and registered the panic in his eyes. That what? That I would say I hate him for the mark on his arm?

Because I didn't. I should but I didn't. He was a death eater, one of the people who had been hunting Harry, Ron, and I. Who was probably still hunting the boys. He had tortured me. And somehow I still managed to feel something for him, and judging by the last few days, he felt something too. A big something.

"If it weren't so ugly it would be beautiful," I stated.

"It's hideous. But it wasn't a few months ago, or even a few weeks ago. It was just a few days ago that I realized how ugly it truly was. That it wasn't something to be proud of, but something to fear. Something that I was disgusted to wear," Draco whispered.

I barely believed that those words had just come out of his mouth.

"Can I see yours?" He requested after a moment.

I felt panic rising up in my chest. Draco softly took my hand and pulled my left arm to him. He looked up at me to make sure it was okay. I held in the tears and nodded my consent. As he pushed my sleeve up I turned away, not wanting to see the scar again.

"Hermione," Draco murmured.

I felt his fingers stroking the pale raised scar. Terrified I looked up at him, and his eyes met mine.

"Don't cry," he said.

I hadn't even noticed that I was silently crying until then. He lifted his hand from my scar and wiped the tears off my cheeks, letting his hand brush the laceration running down my right cheek.

"Our scars don't have to define us," I whispered, not sure where that came from.

"I wish that were true Hermione, I really do."

* * *

Draco followed me into the dining room, and made sure I was seated before disappearing.

"I'll be right back," he called as he left.

With a heavy sigh I piled food onto both of our plates and proceeded to wait several minutes for his return. The slam of a book on the table signaled that he was back.

"You don't have to wait for me. It's not like you owe me anything," he said.

"Don't I?" I answered.

"No. You don't."

"You rescued me. I will never be able to repay that."

"I tortured you and I will never be able to undo that."

"But the point is, that's not you anymore. You regret it. I can see it in your eyes everytime you look at me."

"I-," he started and then seemed unable to find the right words, something that must be new to him.

I pulled the book he had dropped on the table closer to me and spun it around to read the title. _Moste Potente Potions._

"Why do you still have this?" I asked.

Draco came around to my side of the table and sat next to me, bringing his plate with me.

"I think I may have found a potion to heal this," he pointed to the wound on my face. "But I wanted you to have look at it."

He opened the book and flipped to the page. Surprisingly, I had never heard about this potion in great detail. Of course I had seen it during second year but I had been too focused on polyjuice potion and the chamber of secrets to study it in great detail.

The potion was designed to heal wounds that were still open but couldn't be healed by magic because a spell had been cast on whatever had caused the wound. If it worked it wouldn't heal my arm, but my face wouldn't be scarred anymore. I skimmed the ingredients. Nothing listed was too difficult to come by and since I was in the house of a family of death eaters I was sure these things would all be here.

It looked relatively simple. Simmer for eight hours after all the ingredients were added, a lot of specific stirring instructions, but easy enough otherwise.

"Can we do it?" Draco asked eagerly.

"Depends. Do you have pickled slugs, squid ink, and newt spleens?" I replied.

"Upstairs in the potions room. We have a little of everything in there."

"It's definitely doable then. A little difficult but I made one of the most difficult potions ever as a second year. Between us two I think we can handle it."

"Let's go then!" He shot to his feet but I stayed seated. "You coming?" He asked.

"Sit down and eat your breakfast. We are not working on this potion with empty stomachs," I ordered.

"God! You sound just like you did in school," he sighed, but sat down and ate.

* * *

"Two newt spleens are next. They need minced," I commanded and he obliged.

I crushed some beans with my knife to get the juice out and squeezed them over the bubbling cauldron. Draco added the newt spleens and stirred three time clockwise and once counterclockwise.

We had been at it since ten am. It was almost nine pm now. He had screwed up on step two on our first attempt, so we had scrapped that one and started over.

"That's it," he said inspecting the instructions one last time.

We sighed in relief at the exact same time. Draco looked up at me and laughed. It was such a new, beautiful sound. Perfect in every way.

"Let's eat," he turned the burner down so the potion was simmering.

It would be done around five tomorrow morning.

We hadn't taken a break during the potion making. I would never admit it, but I loved brewing that potion. It reminded me of Hogwarts. And I felt like the old Hermione. But the old Hermione would never have hung out with Draco Malfoy. Then again the old Draco Malfoy would never have hung out with me either. This war, this confinement, was changing us both.

For better or worse was yet to be seen.

* * *

**Okay it was kind of but not really a filler chapter but some more character development for both of them. I feel like Draco is left handed so that's what I'm going with. Please keep reviewing I love them all tons! Thank you again for reviewing, following, favoriting, and just reading this story. Remember to look for this from Draco's point of view later today. I'll just call it ****_Blood Red (Draco)._**


	15. Chapter 15

**I have nothing to s****ay except how sorry I am. I forgot about the no screen time rule my mom has for mother's day and I didn't have wi-fi last night. So sorry again. Tons of lovely reviews from you all so thank you all! Almost 100 follows only one more to go! Tons of favorites too! I love you guys!**

* * *

I followed him back downstairs to the room I was referring to as the living room now, the one I had spent most of my time in, in front of the fireplace. The house elves had made italian wedding soup for lunch and Draco just had them heat it back up for dinner. It was on the table in the living room for all of three minutes before it was completely devoured.

"So," Draco began slyly. "You said you saw the potion that stops your bruises from being healed by magic in Moste Potente Potions second year. See, I was thinking about that... I had to get this from the restricted section of the library. How did you possibly get it out in second year?"

"We had a pretty stupid defense against the dark arts teacher."

He rolled his eyes at me, "Okay. Rephrase. Why did you need it in second year?"

"N- no reason," I stuttered and if the heat of my cheeks was anything to go by I was also turning bright red.

"That doesn't sound like no reason," he grinned.

"I am not telling you!"

"Why not?"

"Because it... has to do with... uh you."

His eyes widened in shock, "Now I want to know even more."

"I can assure you that you don't."

"Please? I promise I won't be mad."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," I muttered, but decided that if he could show me his father torturing him, I could tell him what Harry, Ron, and I had done. "If you recall second year was the year with the chamber of secrets."

He nodded.

"Yeah well Ron, Harry, and I kinda thought you had opened the chamber but we needed proof. I believe you told Crabbe and Goyle that you hoped I was the mudblood who died."

"How do you know-"

'Shutup and let me finish the story," He looked taken aback but when he didn't say anything else I continued. "That was- how to put this? Did Crabbe and Goyle seem to be acting strange to you?"

He thought about it then nodded.

I opened the book to polyjuice potion and turned it so it was facing Draco.

"They were actually Harry and Ron under the polyjuice potion that I made," I studied his face, looking for traces of anger. "We wanted to know if you were the cause of the petrifications but you weren't so we took you off the suspect list. Of course, you were the only one on it..." I trailed off.

"So let me get this straight. In second year, second year, you brewed a polyjuice potion so your friends could turn into my friends to find out if I was the one who was attacking muggleborns and I was the only one in the entire school you suspected?"

"You aren't mad?"

"I would have been a few weeks ago but honestly it's too brilliant for me to be mad. Very Gryffindor too, self sacrificing and all that. Where were you?"

This time I knew I blushed, "Studying."

"Liar."

"How do you know that?"

"Slytherin remember?"

I glared at him and then relented, "I accidently got the wrong hair and sort of turned into a... a cat."

He coughed and water sprayed out of his mouth across the room. I realized he was laughing at me. He started to say something but couldn't stop the hysterical laughter. Looking back at the cat incident it really was quite funny.

"Laugh Hermione it's funny," he choked out.

I leaned closer to him, "Are you crying?"

"It's funny!"

Then he leaned over and tickled my side, being sure to avoid the bruises. I giggled and it only edged him on. Before I knew it we were laying next to each other on the floor gasping for air.

He hiccuped. I laughed and started hiccuping too.

"I think we're both a little loopy," I smiled.

He scooped me into his arms and carried me up to his room, dropping me on the bed and then flopping down himself. We didn't even say our usual good night's before sleep overtook both of us.

* * *

"Hermione, wake up! It's ready!"

When I sat up this time, Draco managed to put his hand between our heads so I didn't bust his nose again. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up and dragged me up to the room where we had left the potion simmering.

I was terrified that it wasn't going to work and that my face was going to be scarred forever. This was our last chance. Our? When had I started thinking of Draco and I as one thing? Probably around the same time I started thinking of him as Draco, I answered myself.

"Are you okay? You look a little pale?" Draco asked, concerned.

"Fine, just... what if it doesn't work?" I voiced my fears.

"Then you'll still be beautiful," he whispered.

"Okay," I said, not really hearing him at first. "Wait, what?"

"Nothing," he answered hurriedly as his face flushed bright red.

"Thanks Draco," I smiled.

He rolled his eyes and handed me a goblet full of the potion. I stared at it for a moment and gave it a sniff. My nose wrinkled in disgust at the combination of god only knows what wafting from the cup. I got a look from Draco telling me he was about to pour it down my throat. I pinched my nose and took two large gulps of the foul liquid.

He stared at me, eagerly waiting for the wound to seal itself shut. After several minutes it became obvious it wasn't going to work.

"I'm so sorry Hermione, I really thought..."

"It's fine. I hoped but-," I stopped as my cheek started to itch. "What's happening?"

No response.

"Draco?"

"It's working. It's working!"

He conjured a mirror and I watched the cut fade into a scar, and then watched the scar fade completely. Hoping for the impossible, I rolled up my sleeve, but that scar was still there.

"We could probably cut that back open and heal it," he suggested.

I shook my head, "I don't want to risk it," I lied.

In reality I just wanted it there as a reminder. Of what, I didn't know. Maybe of our time together. This war was going to end one way or the other. If Voldemort won I wasn't going to live for very long, and if my side won Draco would be tried like all the other Death Eaters and would probably live the rest of his life in Azkaban.

This scar would remind me of my time here, the dark and then the light. The torture and then Draco.

"You sure?" He checked.

"Yeah," I smiled.

He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine. I snapped my head up to meet his eyes.

"Well come on then."

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked.

"Wonderful," he answered. "Why?"

"You hate me remember? Now you're..." I nodded towards our linked hands.

"I never hated you, just your blood status. I didn't bully you just because you were muggle born. I-" He started.

Lightning flashed and a growl of thunder interrupted whatever Draco was saying.

"Did you hear that?" Panic lit up in Draco's eyes.

"It was just thunder."

"No shh."

I heard a loud pop from down stairs.

"Hermione, come with me and for gods sake be quiet."

I had my suspicions about what was happening but I had to ask anyway.

He gazed at me sadly when I asked.

"My parents are back. Our time's up."

* * *

**Well a cliff hanger here. I haven't done to many of those so here you go.****I will try to update soon. Blood Red (Draco) is now up so please read that too. It's on my profile.**

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	16. Chapter 16

**I would like to start by saying how grateful I am for all the follows and favorites and most of the reviews. Sorry for the long wait for this update. Crazy end of the week. Math test, band concert, labs in science, all that fun stuff. This is a painful chapter in a lot of ways and I had to write it in small chunks at a time because it was wreaking havoc on my emotions. I also got one review that I was incredibly pissed about and I needed some time to calm down. If you read the reviews you'll see which one I mean.**

**Just please leave constructive reviews. I honestly don't mind constructive criticism but leaving a review like that one is not constructive in the least.  
**

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* * *

I followed Draco through different back hallways, waiting for him to say something. When he didn't I tried to. He covered my mouth with one hand and shook his head so I just continued to follow him until we were back in his room.

I sat at the edge of his bed, waiting for whatever came next.

"You stay up here Hermione! Don't make any noise. I'll... I don't know. I 'll figure something out," he ordered, keeping his eyes fixed on the door.

When he turned to look at me I saw a faint mist in his eyes.

'Stay safe' was the last thing he said to me before he left.

After a few seconds I could hear him greeting his parents.

"Mother, father welcome back. I wasn't expecting you so soon or I would have had the house elves prepare something," Draco sounded so different when he talked to them. Everything was more forced and polite with them but around me... he was himself. "Where's Aunt Bella?"

"She decided to go home. The week was rather taxing," Narcissa said.

"Indeed," Lucius answered, a slight bite to his tone.

The next words were muffled and I couldn't make them out. A pair of feet came up the stairs and I ducked behind Draco's bed. Heels clacked past the door and luckily it didn't open. I breathed a sigh of relief and climbed back onto the bed.

A little more time passed and I could hear muted conversation from the dining room below me.

"I am on a rather short fuse young man, so you would do well to watch your mouth!"

"My apologies father. I didn't realize how impolite of me that was to say," even from up here I could here the question in Draco's voice telling me hadn't said anything that could come off even remotely rude.

"Are you really!?" Lucius snarled. "Because it sounds like you don't know what you did wrong. Remember how I used to remind you as a boy?"

My eyes widened in surprise. I had my suspicions about what was about to go down. Was this really how this household operated? I suppose that after Draco's memory I shouldn't have been surprised, but I still was.

Something fell to the floor and it took me several seconds to realize it wasn't a something, but a someone.

"You're pathetic Draco, you know that right? A pathetic son! You can't even kill people properly! Crucio!" his father yelled.

It's okay I told myself. He's had a few crucios go his way before.

A scream, similar to mine in volume, echoed through the whole house. It was a little deeper but not much. I but into my lip to stop the whimper that was trying to escape. In a lot of ways this hurt more than actually being tortured, simply because I couldn't do anything. I had no wand, no way to help. A lot of good I was.

"Stop, please stop!" Draco screamed.

And he did. I wrapped my arms around my legs and sobbed into my knees with relief.

Then there was another heart wrenching scream that didn't stop for a long time. This time my sobs weren't silent. I buried my face into Draco's pillow trying to keep my cries of distress muffled and put another pillow on my head to drown out the screams. It wasn't working. I stayed like that for a long time trying to think happy thoughts.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling as tears streamed down my face.

Draco screamed again and I picked up a pillow and threw hard it against the door. Something fell out of the pillowcase and I got up to see what it was, right as something shattered downstairs. I flinched and picked up the slender piece of wood from the floor. His wand.

I'd spent a lot of time missing my wand, and even though this wasn't mine I still felt a surge of magic running through me when I picked it up. Another scream split the air and I formulated a plan. Well it wasn't exactly a plan, at least not to my standards. It was a Harry and Ron plan. Go in and do whatever the first thing you think of.

I'm going to save you Draco I thought, as I stepped out of the door right into Narcissa Malfoy.

"Miss Granger," she said.

I didn't say anything, simply pointed Draco's wand at her. She put her hands in the air.

"I'm unarmed. Just hear me out,' she begged.

I beckoned her inside and shut the door.

"Ever since the snatchers brought you here he's walked around with his head down, more depressed than normal. Something was wrong tonight. He was actually happy and I think I have you to thank for that," she cried.

"I just want to help him, he probably saved my life and now..." I trailed off. She knew what I meant.

I felt a connection with her almost immediately. We both cared deeply about the same broken boy. There I admitted it. I care about him a lot more than I should. A lot.

"For years this has gone on but I am to afraid to do anything," she explained quietly. "Go Miss Granger and get him somewhere safe."

I nodded and left the room, sneaking silently down the stairs. I peeked around the wall into the living room. Draco was writhing in pain, and bleeding while his father stood over him.

"Stupify!" I screamed.

Lucius flew back against the brick fireplace and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Glass from a vase was laying all over the ground and Draco sobbed on the carpet.

"Oh god! Draco can you hear me," I yelled running up to him and kneeling at his side.

"Hermione what are you doing?" he said, his voice raw from screaming.

Blood sprayed across my face as he coughed.

"Okay, okay," I was panicking but I needed to stay calm. "Um. How many times."

"Eleven, twelve," he moaned.

I rolled him onto his back and he reached a hand to my face. It was sticky with blood.

"Did I ever tell you how beautiful you look?"

"I don't think you're thinking straight," I smiled weakly and pulled his hand away to see what was wrong.

Several pieces of glass were stuck in his palm.

"I'm going to pull these out now," I told him and grasped the edge of a piece and pulled.

He flinched a little and I extracted the two other pieces gently. He gave me his other hand and I pulled one giant piece out of that one too.

"What are you doing? I told you to stay put!"

"Shut up Draco," I snapped.

"Is that my wand?"

I didn't even answer him. Honestly whose wand would I have besides his.

"I didn't do anything this time. It just hurts so much," he sobbed.

I pulled him into my arms and ran my fingers through his hair softly.

"Here."

I looked up and Narcissa handed me a potion. It was a pain killer. Draco drank it all and a shudder ran through him as it took effect.

"Mom?" He asked weakly.

"Miss Granger's going to take care of you Draco. Take this, you'll need it. And I want you to erase my memories of tonight, then stun me," Narcissa answered and handed me a beaded bag.

My beaded bag.

I helped Draco stand. His legs were shaking and he leaned heavily against me.

I pointed his wand at his mother. "Obliviate," I said and her eyes clouded over. "Stupify."

She collapsed to the floor.

"Hermione we need to go," Draco told me urgently.

"This is your home. Are you sure-," I started.

"Positive. Besides this can hardly be called a home."

I rooted through my bag and found a few more potions for him to take. One to stop internal bleeding, just in case, and another to strengthen him. He took them both without arguing and after another few minutes he was back to almost full strength. It would wear off soon but it was working for now.

I tried to hand him his wand but he told me to keep it. We left out of the back and he led us through the woods. A jet of green light flew past us and we dropped to the ground.

"Hermione go!" Draco yelled.

"I am not leaving you!" I pulled him off the ground and started running.

"We have to get outside the property line, then we can apparate away! We're close," he called and I fired stunning curses behind us.

When I turned he had fallen behind. Another green light flew by, so close it ruffled his hair.

"Duck!" I shouted, and fired a stunning curse over his head.

He used his last bit of energy to hurl himself at me. I fell back and he grabbed my hand.

"Apparate! Apparate!" he screamed as curses flew at us.

We were outside the property line now. The Burrow was the first place that came to mind and I felt a tug as we disapparated. My aim was off so we landed far from the Weasley's house but it was in sight.

I was free.

We were free.

* * *

**Yeah sad chapter but necessary. Sorry. The next one will be happier... I think and hopefully up soon.**

**In case you didn't pick up on it I really hate Lucius Malfoy but I like Narcissa and in my opinion she will do whatever it takes to protect her family. I hope I characterized them okay.**

**Keep reviewing, following, and favoriting. Over 100 follows and almost 100 reviews! I love you guys! Enjoy your day!**


	17. Chapter 17

**100 REVIEWS! That was my goal and there's still quite a bit left to go! Thank you guys! I am completely beside myself.**

**Sorry for the late update. I turned fifteen on Wednesday so the whole week was hectic. But I'm not going to complain about a lot of cake and food.**

**I got tons of follows and favorites too so thank you all as well.**

* * *

The moment that Draco realized that we were free, he dropped to the ground. I kneeled at his side and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"I didn't do anything," he murmured, and looked up at me. "Not this time."

"What?" I asked, not fully comprehending what he was saying.

Then I understood. He was talking about what his father had done to him. How he had tortured him.

"Normally I do something wrong, but not this time," he added.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing gives a parent the right to do that to their child. I don't care what you did, you didn't deserve it," I assured him.

Lightning flashed and thunder followed almost immediately. A storm was close. In the blinding flash I saw tears streaking their way down his cheeks.

Decide Hermione, I told myself. I could comfort him or pretend I didn't see the tears.

_You must all make a choice between what is right and what is easy, _ I heard Dumbledore saying.

The right thing was to comfort him, the easy thing was to imagine the tears didn't exist. I was a free witch now and I didn't need Draco Malfoy to help me anymore. I didn't need him at all. But for some reason I still wanted him in my life. I still wanted us to be friends... if that's what we could be called. And there was something more I wanted but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. It would be easy to forget to that this ever happened and go back to being enemies.

But it would be hard because I... well I wasn't going to admit what I felt towards the blonde Slytherin, not even to myself, simply because I didn't know, and I hated not knowing. I was going to find out though.

Freedom was already getting to me. I had my own feelings again, and I could make my own decisions.

It was in that moment that I decided that I was going to make the last week mean something. I pulled Draco's head against my shoulder and he actually flinched a little.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I whispered and ran my fingers comfortingly through his soft hair.

He sobbed a little harder into my shoulder and I pulled him a little closer. Arms wrapped around my waist and I wrapped an arm around him. We stayed like that for several minutes until Draco was shaking a little less.

As he pulled back the clouds broke loose. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed as rain poured from the sky in relentless waves.

"Here," I said and handed him his wand.

He took it curiously.

"It worked rather well for you didn't it?" he smiled, sadly.

It had hadn't it? When someone else's wand worked well for someone else it meant a lot of things, but first and foremost it meant that the two people had a special connection. Draco and I had a special connection.

"Come on Draco, let's get you inside," I rummaged around my bag for some chocolate to help him.

I found a strengthening potion and some chocolate and made him take both of them.

"I have this odd feeling that I won't exactly be greeted warmly by by the Weasley family. I'm sure your friends filled all of them in on exactly what happened that night," Draco sighed.

I was soaked to the bone as I helped him to his feet. He insisted that he could walk on his own. I decided he had a serious pride issue, but if he wanted to walk himself he could walk himself.

While I tried not to let his words get to me they did. What if they wouldn't let Draco stay? Not that I was dependant on him but I didn't want him killed. I didn't want him to leave me. I wanted him to stay. I didn't need, I wanted.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when he stumbled and fell heavily against my shoulder. We were almost there.

"Mrs. Weasley! Mr. Weasley! Fred! George!" I yelled, as loud as I could manage.

Draco summoned strength from somewhere deep inside and stood straight up. I rolled my eyes. Lights came on in the Burrow. By now we were standing on the front porch waiting for someone to let us in.

It was Fred who finally pulled the door open. Draco was behind me, hidden in the shadows and behind relentless rain.

"Where did Hermione Granger send her parents before leaving with Harry and Ron?" He asked.

"Australia," I answered immediately.

Fred's jaw almost hit the floor. He seemed surprised that it was actually me and I felt myself being pulled into a cautious hug. Luckily he had not noticed the boy behind me yet.

"Mom," he called behind him as he ushered me into the house. "Get everyone up right now!"

Fred murmured a few spells and I could feel water evaporating from my hair and clothes. I followed him into the dining room, with a still unnoticed Draco trailing behind.

"This had better be good-," Ron stopped mid sentence and stared at me in shock.

Harry rounded the corner into the living room and ran right into Ron's back.

"Hermione?" They both asked.

"Good deduction," I beamed.

The two boys enveloped me in a crushing hug. Harry was crying and apologizing repeatedly for leaving me. I was insisting that I had made them go where me Ron was still shocked into silence. Mrs. Weasley was the next arrival, followed closely by her husband. The moment she saw me she broke down into hysterical tears and Mr. Weasley was left doing his best to console his sobbing wife.

Fred and George were whispering mischievously to each other. And my two best friends hugged me a little tighter. I let out a hiss of pain as they bumped one of my numerous bruises.

They instantly pulled back and looked me up and down for the first time.

"How did... who... what," Harry tried to ask.

"How?" Ron summed up for him.

"Well-," I started, not really sure how to explain this.

"Hold it!" George interjected. "Your clothes look familiar."

Goddamn it my clothes. Or rather, Draco's clothes. I was still wearing them.

Ron gave his brother a 'not right now' look. When he turned back to me he seemed to notice me attire for the first time.

"Hermione... are you wearing... wearing... are you. Whose clothes are those?" He stuttered.

"Um well," I sighed nervously.

Mrs. Weasley was my savior. At that exact moment she stepped forward and pulled me against her.

"I am so happy that you're safe," she whispered in my ear.

I felt myself getting teary eyed at how much my other family seemed to care for me. She stepped back all to quickly.

Harry was looking at me as if he had finally put all the pieces together.

"Whose clothes?" He insisted and I knew he didn't want to hear the answer.

I twisted up the hem of Draco's white shirt for a couple of seconds, stalling.

"For the love of god! If you won't tell them I will! They're my clothes," Draco stepped out of the shadows for the first time.

Almost immediately six wands were pointed at him. I stepped instinctively between him and the wands. Knowing they wouldn't hex me, I turned to him.

"I can take care of myself. I don't need your help Draco," I sighed.

The family was watching our exchange, completely transfixed.

"Really?" He asked. "You certainly needed my help a week ago when I saved your life. After you were-."

" Don't even go there!" I tried to yell but my voice cracked.

He looked ashamedly down at the ground which was a puddle since he'd been dripping water everywhere.

"Sorry Hermione," he sounded sad.

"After she was what?" Fred spoke for the first time.

Ron interrupted him, "Hermione? Draco? What the hell is going on here?"

"Why are you wearing his clothes!" Harry added.

"Is that a bruise on your neck?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "It looks rather nasty."

"Why is a Malfoy in my house?" Mr. Weasley roared over the chaos.

Ron lowered his wand, stepped around me and nailed Draco in the face. There was a resounding crack as he clutched at his nose.

What ensued was chaos in its purest form. Wands were forgotten. Ron hit Draco again and Harry tried to pull me away from them. I was trying to pull Ron off of Draco and Mr. Weasley was holding the twins back. Mrs. Weasley had left to make sure all the wards were intact, just in case.

I had expected it to be bad but not this bad.

"What did you do to her Malfoy!" Harry yelled.

"Draco," I warned.

"I tortured her for three weeks!" He yelled. "I tortured her and tortured her and was delusional enough to believe that I wasn't becoming my father!"

Ron and Harry were beside themselves with apoplectic rage.

"STOP!" I screamed and everyone froze. "Draco is hurt, I am fine. He seems to leave out the good parts of the story. Now if you would stop fighting and grow up we can all sit down and we will gladly tell you the whole story. Ronald get off of Draco, Harry stop reaching for your wand!"

"The whole story Hermione," Harry insisted. "Don't pretty it up. We want the whole story."

* * *

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I got a smart phone and I have been using it to do a lot of typing which means faster updates, unless I get distracted by other smart phone stuff.**

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	18. Chapter 18

**Umm, I have nothing to say except how sorry I am about the tardiness of this update. Finals and other end of school stuff all kinda caught up to me at once. So I am so sorry! I got tons of great reviews though, so thank you all for those! A bunch more follows and favorites too! Thank you guys so much.**

**To Jemily145: Thank you for leaving all those reviews! I read every one of them. I'm glad you think so highly of my writing and this story. it really means a lot to me. I appreciate the constructive criticism on the Draco one. I know it is kinda repetitive but I think my idea is that either story could stand alone if they wanted to. I actually did consider doing Hermione and Draco's point of view in this story but I have this OCD thing where I just can't. I don't mind reading stories like that but I can't write them for whatever reason. Anyway, thank you so much! You are a great person!**

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* * *

"Fine," I sighed.

Draco rolled over on the floor and moaned.

"Oh don't be such a baby. I only got a few good hits in," Ron snapped at him.

I pushed past Ron and leaned over Draco. His nose was broken. Around me he always seemed to have some sort of nose injury. With a faint smile I reached for my wand and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. I didn't have my wand. I had my beaded bag, but my wand hadn't been in there when we were captured.

He smiled weakly and dug around his pocket. "You might need this Hermione."

Draco pulled out a slender piece of wood. My wand. He handed it to me and I felt the familiar surge of magic. Yes, this one was definitely mine.

"Episkey," I said and he flinched as his nose popped back into place.

Carefully, I helped him to his feet. He fell onto me and I started towards a couch, ignoring the death glare I was getting from my two best friends.

"While I am quite agreed that we need the whole story-," Fred started.

"Oh my, you're hurt. Come with me Mr. Malfoy, I'll get you all fixed up," Mrs. Weasley gushed while I smiled at her. At least one person could look past his name and be a mother. "You too Hermione."

Harry started to protest and she silenced him with a look.

"Judging by the state of them, this isn't a set up. And that means the story can wait half an hour," she had a tone of finality in her voice and no one argued. "Fred, George, help us out here."

The twins took Draco from me and I almost laughed at the look of discomfort on his face. The five of us went upstairs. Mrs. Weasley sent me into Ginny's bathroom to clean up while they went to one of the shared boys bathrooms.

"Hold on," I called.

On a hunch I dug around the bag and pulled out a change of clothes for Draco. His mom knew what she was doing. I tossed them to Fred who got them easily, before we headed our separate ways.

* * *

I let steaming water wash over me, cleansing my skin of the little bit of blood that was left. The torrential downpour outside had washed most of Draco's blood off of me, replacing it with mud. It still had to hit me that I was completely free. Only, if I really thought about it, I wasn't. Voldemort was still out there. He still had to be defeated.

And then there was Draco. There is a muggle condition, called Stockholm Syndrome, where the captive falls in love with their captor. I doubted I had that though, my mind was to strong to fall victim to a psychological problem. Besides, I had never felt any sympathy for Draco while he was torturing me, which was, from what I understood, a definite sign of Stockholm Syndrome. And did the captor act like they cared for the captive? No.

No, I didn't have Stockholm Syndrome.

In some ways I wish I did, because it would make things a whole lot simpler. I would know what this feeling was, this, dare I say it, attraction towards him. Him. The boy I had hated since first year. And he had hated me just as much if not more, or so I thought.

Draco didn't hate me anymore. That much was obvious, and it left me confused about what he did feel. Only I wasn't confused, I realized. I knew exactly how he felt, I just needed to think about it.

Inviting me to stay in his bed because I was a little bit cold. Freaking out about some bruises, and spending a whole day brewing a potion with me, simply to heal a cut on my face. Plus, wasting his precious pain paste on me. He cared, and I knew it. He knew it too and it scared both of us, and because I was the Gryffindor I was going to have to bring it up. Only later.

An angry shout disturbed my thoughts and I finished my shower quickly. Lucky for me, Ginny had grown to about my size, so I borrowed a muggle outfit from her closet. A pair of old jeans, a long sleeve black shirt, and a pink sweater. I grabbed my wand and tucked it in my pocket. It was never leaving my sight again.

There were no more sounds from downstairs so I unpacked my beaded back onto Ginny's bed. From what I could tell all the potions were still there. A few more strengthening potions, empty vials that once contained polyjuice potion, and a few potions Ron and Harry had made. They're probably more poisonous than helpful, judging by the swearing that had traveled through Grimmauld Place when they had been brewing them.

All my books were still there, thank god they didn't see the content of some of the volumes. Then they would have known about the horcruxes.

Narcissa had added several changes of clothes for her son. I pulled them out and refolded them neatly, surprised when I found more sweatpants,T-shirts and jeans than his usual dress shirts and black pants.

Draco's container of paste tumbled out. For a while I was honestly impressed with Narcissa Malfoy. Not only had she been brave enough to help us escape, she had also known about a lot of her son's secrets and never told his father. In her own way, she was as brave as Harry, Ron, and I.

Then a thin envelope fluttered out of the bag. Draco's name was written in elegant cursive and it was sealed with what I assumed was the Malfoy seal. For a moment I was tempted to open it, but I didn't. This was rightfully Draco's to open. If he wanted me to see it, he would show me.

Tucking the envelope in my pocket, grabbing the paste, and leaving everything else on Ginny's bed I headed downstairs.

* * *

"Draco!" I called as I entered the living room.

He was sitting on the largest couch with the twins while Harry and Ron were sitting on the couch opposite to them. The two adult Weasleys sat in armchairs, pushed close together.

He glanced up at me and I tossed him the silver container. Fred gave me a suspicious look and, with a sigh, Draco unscrewed the lid for Fred to study. He seemed to find it safe because he didn't argue.

Harry and Ron looked over at me expectantly. It was good to see that they were still as impatient as ever and I couldn't help a grin from forming. I gave them a look that told them plainly to wait while I pulled up the last armchair.

I noticed Draco's wand sitting by Mr. Weasley.

"So, Hermione dear, will you please tell us what happened?" Mrs Weasley asked kindly.

I smiled at her and glanced at my boy- I mean Draco. WHOA! Where had boyfriend even come from?

"Okay," I sighed. "Draco, feel free to add anything you want to the story. Ron, Harry, I want you to promise to hear the whole story before you kill someone. You too Fred and George."

"Hermione-," Harry whined, intending it to be funny.

Draco actually laughed quietly. Everyone turned to look at him and he crossed his arms.

"We promise," Ron assured me.

I glanced at Draco nervously, and his eyes locked with mine.

"Okay, I will start," He sighed. "After you two escaped with that house elf-"

"He died by the way Hermione," Harry interrupted.

I felt a tug of sadness for the brave little elf.

"I'm sorry Harry. I know how much he meant to you," I murmured.

"When this is over we'll have to show you the grave," Ron said sadly. "It's simple, but beautiful."

"When you three are done I would be more than happy to continue the story you seemed so impatient to hear," Draco snapped.

I flinched at the bite in his tone. This was nothing like the boy I had known for the last week.

"Watch it Malfoy!" Ron snarled.

"Dobby meant a lot to us! We don't need you insulting his memory!" Harry growled.

"Yes the house elf," Draco rolled his eyes. "What a memory worthy-"

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I cut him off angrily.

"He's just acting like Malfoy," Fred and George said.

"I don't know? Is there something wrong?" Draco snapped at me, completely ignoring the twins.

"Don't talk to Hermione that-," Harry started.

"Shut up! All of you, shut up!" I yelled and stalked over to Draco.

He stood up to meet my challenge. I could see the shakiness of his stance, and pain hidden behind his cold eyes. Six people went to step between us, but I shook my head. They nervously sat back down, but stayed on edge.

I stared at the Slytherin hard.

"Problem?" He smirked.

"Yes! You! What is wrong with you?! Even when we got here you were at least civil. Why do you choose now to go back to being a git? Why can't you act more like you did for the last week?" I hissed. "What happened to being all nice? Keeping me safe? Warm? Giving me food? Caring for the mudblood? What happened to that Draco?"

"Don't say that you're a mudblood Hermione!" He shouted, causing everyone's eyes to widen in surprise.

I smiled, "There he is."

"How did he keep you warm?" Either Fred or George asked.

I ignored him.

"Come on Draco!" I shouted, startling everyone. "You don't need these walls, this mask just because it's not just us anymore! You can show weakness here! None of us are going to hurt you!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Ron muttered under his breath.

I ignored him, "Draco, please. I can see you struggling to even stand!"

And just like that all the ice melted away, "I'm sorry. It's just second nature. I've had to do it for so long..." He trailed off.

Everyone was staring at us and I realized why. We had definitely not left room for Jesus, as my mother would say. Plus I had just told off Draco Malfoy... and he listened. Even I was surprised by that.

I took a step back, giving Jesus room, right as his legs gave out. He fell forwards and I caught him, before gently sitting him back on the couch. Everyone was still unmoving and silent while I returned to my seat to hopefully be able to actually tell the story without another fight.

"So how did he keep you warm again?" George asked.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**Not to much action, sorry. Next chapter is big though. I should have been studying for finals when I wrote this yesterday but I didn't, as you can tell. Both of mine were this morning and I am now free for the summer, except for you know marching band. There is a distinct possibility of an update by Thursday. I might have my room cleaned by then and be able to work on this:)**

**If any of you have finals good luck! Have a great day, and happy end of the school year.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Yeah I forgot my brother's birthday was on Thursday so that is why I didn't update, the big one-O. Happy late birthday to Draco, whose birthday was also Thursday. This is actually really funny because my brother hates Draco with a burning passion and yet they share a birthday.**

**Anyway, I got tons of lovely reviews so thank you for those as well as the follows and favorites! Readers, thank you!**

**I was a little concerned about this chapter because Draco is pretty open, but I feel like he is comfortable enough around Hermione to let his guard down. Also Fred and George are pretty accepting of him, but they never really knew him personally. Besides they hide everything behind jokes, including distrust right?**

**But I hope you like it.**

* * *

The whole family obviously expected an answer to George's question. I was blushing furiously which only made everyone more suspicious.

"We could do a demonstration?" Draco suggested.

Fred elbowed him hard in the side, while my jaw practically hit the floor. Mrs. Weasley looked at me and I explained.

"Blankets, mostly," I muttered.

"Mostly!" Harry yelled.

"Just let me tell the story!" I snapped and didn't give anyone time to answer. "After I made you two leave, they wanted me to tell them where you went. Uh... Bellatrix made Draco..." This was the tricky part.

"God Hermione! You promised Potter the whole story!" Draco sighed. "My psychotic, sick, twisted Aunt, made me torture your location out of her-"

"But," I added quickly. "I told them the wrong place. Draco knew I was lying and could have kept at it but didn't. Then later, after they searched Grimmauld Place, he said he could tell I wasn't lying, so they wouldn't torture me again."

Draco shrugged as all eyes turned to him, "My Aunt and I also tortured her for the following three weeks, before I finally broke her by saying you had died-"

"Only because he thought it was true!" I protested.

"You little piece of-" Ron started.

"Watch your mouth young man!" Mr. Weasley shouted.

"You tortured her!" Harry yelled.

"At least I didn't abandon her to die!" Draco answered, angrily.

"She made us go!" Ron hissed.

"Not that! How thick are you? You could have sent people to try to rescue her at least! There was never any attempt to get her out! I know!" Draco shot to his feet, suddenly overcome with a rush of adrenaline.

"I don't think that was the whole story!" Mrs. Weasley said, in a useless attempt to calm the raging storm.

"What would we have done Malfoy? It was too dangerous!" Harry snarled.

In a split second Draco had his hands on the front of Harry's shirt and shoved him into a wall. Everyone was too shocked to move.

"You want to hear about something dangerous Potter?! What's dangerous is a Malfoy sheltering Hermione Granger in his house for a week! What's dangerous is deserting the Death Eaters for her! What's dangerous is suddenly realizing you care more about the girl you hated than you have ever cared for anyone before! What's dangerous is caring so much about her that your sense of self preservation is completely destroyed and everything you do is to protect her!" Draco screamed at him.

Harry looked ashamed. The adrenaline pumping through Draco seemed to be wearing off and he stumbled back a few steps. Surprisingly it was Fred who helped him sit back down.

"He saved my life guys. Could you at least try to behave civilly towards him?" I begged.

Ron and Harry glanced at each other.

"Can we get the rest of the story first?" Harry asked.

"Well, after he told me you two had died I woke up in his bed. I was bandaged up and changed," I continued and explained the potion that stopped bruises from healing, how Draco had eventually found a potion to heal the wound on my face. He, of course, had to add that he was responsible for cutting me in the first place. Bit by bit I told the rest of the story, Draco occasionally adding things about how terrible he had been to me in. He seemed intent on viewing himself in the worst possible way.

By the time we had finished, something had finally clicked in their minds. Maybe the glaringly obvious guilt Draco felt about what he had done. Maybe how he had saved my life and they didn't. Something Draco had screamed at Harry must have hit home.

I honestly didn't blame them for not attempting a rescue mission though. It was dangerous, plain and simple. But I was surprised that Draco had ended up being the one with the courage to rescue me. He knew what it was going to end with. Either he put me back in the cellar at the end of the week or we escaped together. His plan was probably to go through with the first option, but he'd developed feelings he didn't expect to have and the rest was history.

"Well I for one think we should let him stay. Hermione seems to trust him, so I think we can too," Mrs. Weasley said, after a long silence.

"I agree, he saved her and that should be enough for us," Mr. Weasley added.

Fred and George nodded reluctantly. Then I turned to Harry and Ron.

"As long as he doesn't have a wand I suppose," Harry sighed.

"But we're gonna be watching you Malfoy! One slip up and you are out of here!" Ron snapped.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" I brushed back a tear.

The twins were the first to wrap me in a crushing hug that felt more like being sat on by a bear than being hugged..

"We missed you so much Hermione," George said.

When they stepped back Ron and Harry embraced me.

"Without you... we just... I missed my sisters, especially you," Ron stuttered out.

Harry couldn't even say anything, he was crying to hard, but that said it all.

They stepped back, reluctantly to allow the eldest Weasleys to hug me. To their credit, they were holding together quite well. There was another round of hugs for everyone except Draco, who continued to sit on the couch, looking almost... sad to be left out?

"Draco," I called, and he glanced up from staring at his hands.

It was only because I had gotten to know him so well, that I could make out tears filling his eyes. I gestured for him to come over to us. He shook his head and resumed staring at his hands. Harry was continually glancing between the two of us, while Ron looked confused, and Fred and George started whispering again.

I took a few steps away from my friends and sat next to the resident Slytherin. Hesitantly, I wrapped my arms around him and he flinched, finally looking into my eyes.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Shut up," I answered.

I felt his arms wrap around me, and squeeze. When I finally let go, Ron and Harry looked ready to either vomit or pass out. Mr and Mrs Weasley weren't reacting, just staring at each other.

"Is this how he kept you warm?" Fred grinned.

"Or did that involve less clothes, and more contact?" George added.

"Who was on top?" Fred laughed.

"You two are disgusting," I snapped. "And for your information I stayed warm by... nevermind."

"Sleeping in my bed... with me," Draco finished for me and Ron looked murderous. "Her innocence is still intact Weaselbee, I saved that for you. Don't worry."

"Eww!" Ron made a face. "No offense Hermione, but I consider you my sister and I really don't want to... just eww."

"None taken," I rolled my eyes.

"Children, it is around seven in the morning. Not that we have anything to do tomorrow, well today, but I think we could all use some sleep," Mr Weasley ordered.

"I think Draco and Hermione might want to sleep together," George put in.

"Yes, they can have our room. It's soundproofed," Fred winked at us.

"Boys!" Mrs Weasley sighed. "All right, Hermione you can have Ginny's room and Draco you can sleep in Percy's room."

I realized what she was doing, even though no one else seemed to. Percy's room was next door to Ron's on the top floor. Ginny's was on the second floor. We were separated by two floors, and in Draco's condition he certainly wasn't using stairs without help.

I nodded my consent and none of the boys argued.

"Can I talk to Draco alone for a minute please?" I asked.

The adults shrugged and left. Harry and Ron crossed their arms before Fred and George dragged them away. Knowing those four, they were probably just outside the door, I spoke quietly.

"When your parents first arrived they interrupted something you were saying, about why you bullied me in school. Care to finish that?" I said.

He sighed but relented.

"At first, it was because you we're a muggle born, but after fourth year it was because mhwmwhwhwm," he answered.

"What?" I chuckled.

"BecauseImayhavehadacrushonyou," He muttered.

"Do you always bully girls you like?" I asked, rather skeptically.

"Yeah," he smiled, then yawned.

"You need to get to bed. You are hurt, and I daresay cold young man," I commanded.

He laughed quietly. God I loved that sound, and his hair, and everything about him. And what the hell was wrong with me?

"Your mom put this in my bag," I pulled out the letter from my pocket.

"Thank you for actually giving it to me and not reading it," he took it and opened the envelope.

I watched as he unfolded a single piece of parchment. He was curious at first, then his eyes widened and he dropped it.

"You okay?" I asked, more than a little concerned about the contents of the note.

"Just read it," He snapped.

I picked up the parchment. There was a mere two sentences written on it.

_Son, I will always love you, no matter what. Remember that, and don't make the same mistake Severus Snape did._

* * *

**Well, Hermione obviously has no idea what that means but Draco does:) I just love Narcissa so much.**

**As a side note, Stephen King is a scary writer, so I work on this story rather than read before I go to bed now.**

**Please keep reviewing like you do, I love it!**

**It has occurred to me that they haven't kissed yet. Sorry. Soon though. And as a heads up, it will be terribly described because I've never kissed anyone.**

**Have a great night everyone! Hope finals and everything went okay, or as okay as they can.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Well... sorry. I'm hiding in my room from all of you who want to murder me for not updating. I was having a combination of wi-fi and computer problems. So sorry! If I ever do this again just spam me with PMs or something.**

**Stilll... the reviews! I love you guys so much! Over 150! My new goal is 200 so keep it up.**

**Thank you all, reviewers, followers, favoritors, and readers!**

**I dedicate this chapter to kissmyquiver who not only is stuck at camp all week but is just amazing (see end for more details).**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Judging by the look on Draco's face, now wasn't the time to ask what that meant.

"Children! Are you in bed yet!?" Mrs. Weasley yelled, and the sound echoed through the whole house.

"As soon as Malfoy and Hermione are done snogging we will be!" Fred answered from just outside the door.

At that moment the four boys barged back into the living room, Ron and Harry looking anxious..

"You weren't were you?" Ron gasped.

"No!" We answered indignantly.

Harry and Ron sighed in relief, while the twins looked disappointed.

"Come on Malfoy, we'll show you Percy's room," George said.

Draco shot me a nervous glance and I tucked the note into my pocket again, before smiling reassuringly at him.

"You'll be okay," I assured him, but he still looked skeptical.

"Goodnight Hermione, Weaselbee, Potty," He sighed.

"Draco!" I admonished with a small smile.

He rolled his eyes, "Goodnight Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and Harold Potter... better?"

I was almost a hundred percent sure Harry's name wasn't Harold, but I let it go. The twins openly laughed and I swore Ron chuckled. Then Draco followed, or rather was supported by, Fred and George to Percy's old room.

"You two seem chummy," Harry stated the moment they had gone.

"Honestly, he didn't want to become a death eater guys. I understand that you are a little apprehensive, I was at first too. It wasn't a sudden change, which makes it all the more genuine," I insisted.

"I get it, but don't expect us to just all the sudden be best friends with ferret boy. I trust your judgement Hermione, I always will, but I don't trust him fully yet," Ron announced, showing surprising cool headedness for such a situation.

"I don't know if we ever will either," Harry added. "But he is different from before."

Ron nodded, "More open..."

"Genuine..."

"Like Fred and George."

"You should see him when he really gets comfortable around you," I smiled.

They gave me odd looks.

"Hermione, what my brothers said. Are you two... dating?" Ron stuttered.

I shook my head no, even though somewhere deep inside I wished we were.

"You seem sad about that," Harry noted.

"Uhh.. no, I just got to... to be... know Draco... good... I mean very well... and," I choked out.

"Liar," Harry said.

"Okay, we will try to deal with ferret face but if you two are going to snog or whatever," Ron shuddered at the thought. "I can't deal with that."

"What is he going to have to do to get you all to trust him?" I asked, more than a little nervous as to what their answer was going to be.

"I don't know Hermione, but I can tell you it better be good," Harry answered.

* * *

After that conversation was finally over we went to our separate rooms to sleep, at least a little. I had forced my two friends to promise to tell me all about Gringotts tomorrow... well technically later today.

Meanwhile, Draco continued to haunt my thoughts, which no longer disturbed me. I cherished every moment his face appeared in my dreams, knowing full well this war could end with us both dead. Depressing, but unfortunately true.

Fred and George seemed to be onto something though. They were a little too perceptive for their own good. Even Draco and I hadn't openly discussed... whatever we had. We needed to though, if we wanted to make it work, but maybe he didn't want it to work.

He said he had crush on me though. Had a crush. Was it still there? Doubts started to plague my mind and I pushed them aside. I would talk to him and we would figure it out, despite my fear that he wouldn't want to date a muggleborn.

I was a Gryffindor, and I was going to be brave.

* * *

When I got up, around noon, Mrs. Weasley was making lunch. The twins had decided to continue inventing things for their business from their bedroom so frequent booms erupted from upstairs.

"Mrs. Weasley?" I asked timidly. "Do you need any help?"

"Absolutely not dear! You sit down and I am going to get some food in you. Mr. Malfoy has done a good job of keeping you fed, but nonetheless you are still much too skinny. Ronald don't touch those sandwiches!" She replied.

I grinned while Ron looked defeated and sat down next to me.

"Ferret face is still sleeping," Harry announced, coming into the room.

"What happened to him when you escaped?" Ron asked.

The torture from Lucius was the one part of the story I had left out.

"Here you are," Mrs. Weasley sat down several plates, heaped with sandwiches.

"Thank you," I said.

Ron stuffed some in his face and Harry took three. The older woman smiled at my manners and left.

"First tell me what happened to you two," I ordered, taking a sandwich for myself.

"Well we knew Bellat- oh god! I'm sorry Hermione," Ron started then stopped at the mention of her name.

"She's a big girl Weasley," Draco announced while he stumbled into the room.

I turned to look at him. He was leaning on George while Fred stole some of our food.

"I am aware of that you little ferret, I merely assumed-," Ron snapped.

"Please not now!" I pleaded.

"Yes your highness," Draco smirked.

I recognized him throwing my words back at me and rolled my eyes.

"We need to talk," Harry announced, giving the twins his best 'get out' look.

They picked up Draco and left. Literally they picked him up. I laughed before turning back to my best friends.

"He was right. I can deal with it."

Harry told me everything. They broke into Gringotts with Griphook's help, and they had managed to stab Hufflepuff's cup before the goblin took the sword and ran. Then they escaped on a dragon and come here. By that time the Weasley's had officially become outlaws. The boys had been here for a week before we showed up.

"We know there are two horcruxes left. One is the snake and the other is something. Harry thinks that might have to do with Ravenclaw," Ron finished.

"That was my theory as well," I sighed. "But where could it be?"

They gave each other a look.

"We think it might be in Hogwarts somewhere," Harry replied. "From what I saw, Hogwarts was Tom Riddle's home so it's only natural that he would have hidden something there."

"That makes sense, so how are we going to get it?"

Ron answered this time.

"We actually planned on going tonight and sneaking in through Hogsmeade. But since we have you back, I think we should wait until you have recovered before we go."

"It needs to be soon though," Harry put in. "You see, he knows we are hunting horcruxes and it only makes him angrier. If this war is ever going to end, it needs to be soon."

I smiled at them, feeling another rush of pride that they had finally grown up.

"Let's do it tomorrow night or the next. I'm pretty much all good except for a few bruises here and there. I would just appreciate some time to review a few spells. After a month without a wand, I'm a tad rusty," I decided.

They agreed immediately. Then I felt myself being pulled into yet another hug.

"Hermione we missed you so much! Even if you did bring the ferret, we are still glad you're back," Harry murmured.

Almost a minute passed before we finally pulled apart.

"Can we see them Hermione?" Ron asked, looking more than a little nervous.

I knew immediately what he meant.

Carefully I lifted up my shirt so they could see my stomach and then bit by bit showed off the rest. I paused at my arm, unsure if they would want to see the word carved there. After a moment I hesitantly pushed the sleeve up.

"Did Malfoy do that!" Ron screamed.

I flinched.

"NO! Ronald calm down! It was Bellatrix, for goodness sake. Breathe!" I yelled.

He inhaled sharply, "Okay. Those are some nasty bruises... remember what we said last night about how Malfoy could prove his trustworthiness? Well I have a correction. It can't just be good. It had better be one HELL of a something."

* * *

**I hope you liked it!**

**Anyway, so what kissmyquiver did was write me a Dramione oneshot for my birthday. It is called Tears, and is just amazing! It could be considered a prequel of sorts to this story. Please read it and review! I shall put a link on my profile because it is so magnificent!**

**Also I have a couple other Dramione idea floating around my head so keep an eye on my profile for those. not sure when I will get around to writing them down but I am planning on doing it at some point.**

**Last thing, the show _Murder In The First _is amazing. It has our lovely Tom Felton being hot as usual. It's on TNT, Mondays at 10 if you're interested. Only two episodes have aired so far so you can always catch up. As a heads up, it is intended for a mature audience. Read the description and you will see what I mean.**

**Okay, have a great night and please review!**


	21. Chapter 21

**So I'm updating fast because I still feel bad about the last update's tardiness:)**

**Thank you everyone! Lovely reviews, as always!**

* * *

Draco spent the rest of the day with the twins. Occasionally the three of them would descend to steal food from the kitchen. Fred and George looked mildly uncomfortable, but not as much as Ron and Harry. Mr. Weasley was doing his best to avoid everyone and was holed up in the garage. The only person who continued her life as usual was Mrs. Weasley. She bustled around making sure Draco and I were doing all right, cleaning, cooking, and trying to keep Ron from eating the entire meal she had planned.

Our trio decided to plan the Hogwarts robbery. Hopefully we could get in, find and destroy the horcrux, and get out. I had serious doubts as to whether that would work, but it was better than staging a full scale battle. It would be just the three of us, as we needed stealth, not brute force.

"Everyone come down here now! It is time for dinner!" Mrs. Weasley shouted up the stairs.

Ron and Harry burst through the door and I followed them at a more reasonable pace. They almost fell down the stairs in their haste to access food. Fred and George walked with Draco, who was able to walk on his own. According to Mrs. Weasley he should be back to full strength by now. She said the curse had been powerful but wouldn't have lasting effects.

"Don't fall down the stairs," I called to him as I exited Ron's room.

He turned to roll his eyes at me before making his way down the stairs to the dining room. Fred whistled and George chuckled. Harry and Ron missed the whole exchange trying not to kill themselves.

"Arthur! You are eating dinner with the family! Get in this house right now!" I heard Mrs. Weasley yell out the door as I came downstairs.

"Hermione dear, why don't you sit next to Harry, and Mr. Malfoy sit next to Hermione. Ron sit next to Harry and put the chicken down!"

There was chaos for several minutes as everyone found their seats. George sat next to Draco and Fred next to him. Mr. Weasley sat beside Fred while Mrs. Weasley sat between Ron and Mr. Weasley.

"Now you may eat," Mrs. Weasley announced.

"Thank god!" Ron sighed, piling food onto his plate.

Everyone dug in. Everyone except Draco. He only sat there, waiting for everyone to get their food, which was probably his pureblood manners. I realized he had never experienced a Weasley dinner which was just a free for all. Survival of the fittest you could say. So he stared at his plate, completely lost amongst the organized chaos of a Weasley meal.

Ron went for his fourth piece of chicken, and I knocked his hand out of the way, snagging a piece for Draco. Fred passed him the mashed potatoes and corn. He looked up at us with wide eyes.

"You have to fight to survive here," Fred explained.

Harry, Ron, and Mr. Weasley all looked at him shocked.

"We aren't letting him starve, he just got better," Fred said indignantly.

"And what would Hermione do without her lesser half?" George added.

"George!" I admonished.

"Oh no! He isn't your better half is he?" He asked.

Ron made gagging sounds. After a second he choked on his mouthful of food and Harry hammered him hard in the back.

"Am I missing something?" Mr. Weasley asked.

I shook my head.

After that incident silence reigned for a while.

"Mum! Guess what we finally did?" Fred gasped, shattering the awkward silence.

Without waiting for an answer, he ploughed forward.

"Ferret boy helped us find an antidote for our hair dyeing truffles. We made him ginger for two hours before he made up a counterspell."

"He didn't want to help at first so we took away his lovely blonde locks," George grinned.

Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. I noticed dark circles under them, but didn't really give it any thought. There was another long silence.

"I'm done," Harry pushed his chair out and stood.

"Me too," Ron also stood.

"Us three and four," The twins announced.

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley, it was delicious," Draco said and followed the twins out.

That left me and the two adults.

"Goodnight, and thank you," I smiled at them before leaving.

"I told you he's different!" I heard Mrs. Weasley say.

* * *

It was two in the morning when a sharp scream disturbed my sleep. I threw off my covers and ran from Ginny's room.

"I won't do it!"

I ran into the twins, literally.

"Don't hurt her! Please!"

I burst through Draco's door. Ron and Harry looked up at me and then back at the blonde boy who was writhing in the bed. Mrs. Weasley arrived only seconds after me, followed closely by Mr. Weasley.

"It's just a nightmare mum. Go back to bed," George ordered.

Mr. Weasley ushered her out of the room.

"She doesn't sleep well as it is, with Ginny being at Hogwarts and all," Ron explained.

"Don't be dead! Please, just don't be dead!" Draco whimpered.

"What do we do with the ferret?" Harry asked, and gave Draco a look.

"Move!" I snapped and pushed past the boys.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Ron said.

I ignored him.

"Wake up! Just wake up!" Draco screamed.

I knelt on the bed and leaned over him.

"Draco, shh! I'm right here. I'm alive."

Gently, I pushed his hair away from his eyes. He whimpered. I put my forehead against his and ran my fingers through his hair.

"Wake up! You're okay, I'm okay," I whispered. "Draco!"

Suddenly my eyes locked with his gray ones.

"Hermione!" he breathed.

I was tempted to kiss away everyone of the tears dripping down his beautiful face, then I remembered that we had an audience.

His arms encircled my waist and pulled me against him. I rested my head on his well muscled chest and returned the embrace. His breaths were shaky and he held me even closer.

"I can feel your heartbeat," he whispered, and his lips tickled my ear. "Will you stay?"

I sat up a little.

"I don't think they'll-"

"Please Hermione?"

I remembered the dark circles under his eyes earlier. That's when I finally put the pieces together.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" I asked, concerned.

"I didn't want my nightmares to keep anyone awake," he said as an answer.

"Yes, I'll stay," I looked down at him.

Tears of gratitude welled in his eyes.

"No! Absolutely not!" Harry snapped.

"This isn't up to you Harry, and don't even start Ron!" I stood up and placed my hands on my hips.

"Hermione!" They tried to protest.

"Listen, I slept in bed with him before and he didn't try anything. I trust him completely, and if any of you want sleep I highly suggest you don't start this with me!" I snarled.

"Hermione-,"

"Ron," George interrupted. "Let it go. I want to go to bed and so do they."

"Fine," Ron huffed. "We'll be listening."

"I'll put a silencing charm up," Fred volunteered.

"That won't be needed," Draco laughed quietly.

"'Night guys," I smiled.

They reluctantly left. I heard Fred murmur a silencing charm before a fist connected with skin and he yelped.

"I think our nocturnal activities will have to be put on hold," Draco said as I climbed under the covers.

I turned to look at him.

"You aren't serious are you?"

"No! Sirius was my cousin!" He stated, as if that should be obvious.

I bit back a laugh, "No, really?"

"No I wasn't serious. Lighten up Hermione."

"Okay. Just checking," I sighed and turned so I could see the ceiling.

His hand reached for mine and I gave it a reassuring squeeze. We just layed there for several minutes staring at the same patch of ceiling. I shifted to get my neck in a more comfortable position. Despite being a queen sized bed, there were only the two pillows Draco had.

He turned to me.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just don't have a pillow is all," I replied.

"Come here."

He pulled me even closer and rested my head on his chest. I placed my right arm over him and nestled my head against him. My right leg was brushing his left leg as I started to fall asleep.

Just as sleep consumed me I swore I hear Draco say three words, I never thought he would say.

"I love you."

But I couldn't be sure.

* * *

**Well I hope you liked it. I'm thinking the kiss will be next chapter!**

**I need some input though. I am considering continuing this story after the battle of Hogwarts, partly because I love writing for you guys and also so Draco can experience a family and some other stuff. I would incorporate some other problems, like Draco was a death eater and has a trial or something like that. If I did would you want it as a sequel story or just continue it here?**

**I was thinking of making it a sequel.**

**Or is doing that just making everything too long?**

**Let me know and please, please, please review!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Well first, thank you for all the feedback on sequel or not. I'm still deciding but I am leaning towards a sequel. Second, reviews... I can't even right now! Thank you so much! Thank you to the guest who yelled at me for not updating. On that note, I actually have a very good reason.**

**I doubt any of you live in Pennsylvania, but if you do you may have heard about this. One of the seniors at my high school was killed in a car crash about a week ago. I didn't know him that well, but my good friend was his girlfriend. It's been pretty tough on everyone, especially the football team. He was first string so... yeah. That's why this is so late.**

**Sorry!**

* * *

I woke up to the scent of spring and rain. My head was nestled into Draco's shoulder, with my arm draped across his chest. I felt him breathing softly underneath me and I smiled into his strong shoulder. When I had woken up earlier, much earlier, he had been holding me against him smiling slightly in his sleep.

"You're beautiful when you sleep."

I turned my head to look at the boy I was curled up against and grinned. He returned it and then pulled me closer.

"You sleep okay?" I asked.

"Wonderfully after you got here," he replied. "You?"

"Great... once I got here."

He laughed softly.

"Are you going to freak out and fall off the bed again? Then I can throw another pillow at you," Draco said, smirking.

I rolled my eyes, but felt a smile tugging at my lips.

"I'll tickle you if you don't laugh. That was actually pretty funny," he muttered and poked my ribs.

I inhaled sharply when his fingers stabbed a bruise.

"Sorry! Sorry! I forgot!" He gasped.

"It's okay," I assured him, noticing the panic in his eyes.

Gently, nervously I snuggled closer to him and in return he pulled me tighter against him.

"Ferret-boy and Hermione laying in the bed!" One of the twins sang, storming through the door.

"F-U-C-"

Harry's yell drowned them out for a moment.

"First comes fore-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" I yelled.

Surprisingly they actually stopped their modified song. Draco was shaking with hysterical laughter underneath me.

"You two are disgusting!" I snapped, in a fruitless attempt to hide my own amusement.

The twins puffed out their chests proudly.

"Speaking of disgusting," Ron muttered, giving us a look.

"We should probably get up, Draco," I said. "I want to do some practice with spells today."

He sat up, and leaned over the edge of the bed. When he sat back up he was holding yet another pair of black sweatpants.

"Want them, for later?" He asked.

Ron and Harry laughed. I raised my eyebrows at them before taking the pants from him. 'Slytherin' was vertically imprinted on the fabric down the left leg.

"Snape said we should try to 'accept muggle things' so he ordered us all sweatpants and sweatshirts," Draco explained.

"Oh yeah. There's nothing going on between them," Harry muttered sarcastically from the doorway.

* * *

"Stupify!" I screamed, then nonverbally cast a disarming spell.

Harry dropped to the grass, out cold, while Ron's wand flew from his hand into mine.

"Ennervate," I said, pointing my wand at Harry.

He blinked in confusion, then seemed to come to his senses.

"Well you haven't lost your touch just yet," He sighed in defeat.

Ron snatched his wand from me in mock anger.

"I think we're ready," He whispered to us. "Tonight?"

"Tonight," Harry and I agreed.

"Dinner!" Mrs. Weasley yelled from the doorway.

"Dinner!" Ron yelled back happily.

We had skipped lunch, despite Ron's protests.

"Wait!" Harry called after Ron, who was sprinting towards his house.

His shoulders slumped and he made his way back to us.

"Hermione, you've avoided this at least four times. We need to know. Is there something going on between you and Malfoy?" Harry asked seriously.

"No-," I started.

"Please," Ron scoffed. "We just don't want you to get hurt Hermione. And we know enough to trust your judgement, but please be careful. I don't trust him."

"Thank you, for... accepting it. Kind of, I guess. We aren't anything really," I smiled at my two friends.

"Well Fred and George seem to approve. They're trying to come up with some name for you two," Harry chuckled and I wasn't sure whether he was amused or upset.

* * *

Dinner went much the same as the previous night. Draco had helped the twins in trying to replicate what Harry did to his Aunt the summer before third year. George's left hand was still slightly swollen. Afterwards everyone, at my insistence, turned in early. There was a fight, similar to the one last night, about where I was sleeping. Mrs. Weasley was strongly opposed to me staying with Draco, but eventually she caved.

So now here I was, waiting for the boys to come for me. Draco was subconsciously running his fingers through my hair while he slept and I felt a pang of guilt. Harry, Ron, and I knew full well that the final battle could be tonight, and it could go either way.

My door creaked open and I saw Ron's vivid hair peak through. Cautiously I climbed out of bed, doing my best not to wake Draco. This could be the last time I ever see him. I pressed my lips gently against his forehead.

"I love you too," I whispered.

I had to say it sometime, and this could be my last chance.

It took less than a minute to change from his sweatpants and Ginny's shirt to jeans, sneakers, and a duller shirt. Bright blue would probably stand out more than a little.

"Once we're out of the wards we can apparate to Hogsmeade," Harry murmured to me as I left the room.

One fleeting glance at Draco showed a pale boy sleeping soundly, hair shining in the moonlight.

* * *

Everything was going as planned for the first forty-five seconds. It was a new record, I think. The moment we hit Hogsmeade sirens went off and dementors crowded the streets. Harry was forced to cast a patronus, giving us away to the swarming death eaters. It was a close call, but a man pulled us into his shop, argued for a moment about goat versus stag patronuses with some death eaters, then came to the back room. Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother.

He insisted that we leave, but obviously we refused, so he sent a painting of his sister to fetch someone.

"Harry!" Neville exclaimed. "Ron! Hermione? Last we heard you had gotten trapped at Malfoy Manor when those two escaped."

I took in his rugged appearance, trying to hide the shock on my face. His face was littered with cuts and bruises, much like the rest of his visible skin.

"Seamus is worse," he said as way of explanation. "Come on! Oh, and Aberforth you might want to expect a few more visitors."

Our trio followed Neville through a dimly lit stone hallway. He was explaining to Ron about the Carrows. After a few minutes of walking he pushed open a door.

Fifty, if not more, students sat huddled in what appeared to be the room of requirement turned tri-house common room. There were no Slytherins, but that wasn't much of a surprise.

"Hey! You lot! I brought some visitors!" Neville called to the assembled students before stepping aside, revealing us to the children.

"Is that?"

"Harry Potter?"

"No!?"

"Wasn't she captured?"

"They're actually here!"

Whispers filled the room.

Seamus's eyes widened and he grabbed a radio.

"Attention everyone! Lightning has struck! I repeat, lightning has struck!"

* * *

**I had a huge internal debate about whether to make this book or movie compliant. I decided on a little of both. I promise I read the books! (Six times each in fact)**

**Also, sorry if that seemed kinda rushed. Some of that is in the book/movie so I figured it would be okay to rush it. I'm assuming if you're reading Harry Potter fanfiction you've read the books, or at least seen the movies.**

**Kiss, next chapter... promise! That'll hopefully be soon. Have a goodnight everyone!**

**Please review because this has almost 200 reviews!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Well... our family's fourth of July got a little crazy. Sorry! Plus this was hard to write, especially the kiss.**

**Update on disclaimer: I now have only five bucks since I bought Les Miserables.**

**Hope it is worth the wait!**

* * *

"So Harry?" Neville asked. "What's the plan?"

"We are searching for something that we need to win the war," Harry answered.

"What is it?" Someone called.

"Uh... we don't know," Ron looked at the floor.

"Where is it then?" Neville tried.

"We don't know that either," Harry said sheepishly.

Muttering broke out in the crowd.

"We think it has something to do with Ravenclaw," I had to yell to be heard over the noise.

"Her lost diadem perhaps?" A dreamy voice called out.

"Yes but Luna... it's lost," Someone else added.

Just then, the room's entrance opened, revealing a flustered red head.

"Ginny!" The two boys called.

"Harry!" She smiled at him. "Snape knows it was you who set off the alarms in Hogsmeade. Everyone is supposed to congregate in the Great Hall right now."

Collectively they turned to Harry for guidance.

"Well I say we give old Snapesy a night to remember," A voice shouted from right behind us.

"And maybe some conditioner," A very similar voice added.

I spun around and was met with the two grinning Weasley twins.

"Come off it. We weren't going to let you have all the fun," George laughed.

"Hey blondie!" Fred yelled back through the hole. "You were right, come on through."

After a moment Draco shoved his way past the twins. Immediately at least twenty wands were trained on him. With a sigh he dropped his wand on the ground and sneered at them.

He grabbed my shoulders and shoved me against a wall, his fingers digging into my shoulders.

"Hermione Granger! Don't ever do that to me again! I woke up and you weren't there... and it was cold just like in my dream!" He screamed at me.

The panic was evident in his voice, and a few tears were even trickling down his cheeks.

"I thought you were... I thought you... you were dead," Draco sobbed.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Seamus snarled.

"Don't ask," Ron muttered.

"You can lower your wands," Harry sighed.

I barely heard any of it.

"You're hurting me," I murmured to the boy.

Draco relaxed his fingers, but kept his hands on my shoulders.

"I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed to become a battle, but it looks like it might be, and I didn't want you to have to choose between your family and..." I mumbled.

He leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"I'd always choose you."

"Someone tell me what is happening!" Ginny screeched.

Draco and I turned to the rest of the room, snapping back to reality. He stepped back so we could stand shoulder to shoulder.

"Everything you heard about our capture was true. I ended up left behind, and Draco saved my life. He helped me escape and well..." I explained.

A few laughs of disbelief drifted up from the crowd.

"Well what Hermione?" Ron asked.

For once I didn't know what to say.

"This," Draco murmured.

Suddenly his hands were tilting my head back. I stifled a gasp at his warm lips pressed against mine. The rest of the room faded out of focus and all I could see was his soft gray eyes, urging me to return the kiss. Then my arms wrapped around him and I felt the tense, strong muscles in his back relaxing. I could taste his subtle mintiness as his hands trailed down my sides and then pulled me against him.

"Get a room!"

That brought us back to reality and we reluctantly broke the kiss. Embarrassed I tried to step back, but Draco held me against him.

"Enjoy that Hermione," he smirked.

Laughing I leaned my head against his chest.

"George, you owe me ten galleons," I heard Fred say to his twin.

Draco rolled his eyes, and we finally stepped apart.

"Excuse me, I have to go and vomit," Harry rubbed his eyes as if trying to remove the image of us kissing from his mind.

"Me too," Ron gagged.

"Not to ruin the mood but, Snape?" Ginny asked.

"I have a plan," said Harry.

* * *

"If any of you know of Harry Potter's whereabouts and do not step forward now you will be treated as equally guilty," Snape sneered.

I stood outside the Great Hall, Draco next to me. Kingsley Shacklebolt had summoned the rest of the Order, and they were behind us. This was it. Either this ended today, or went on forever. This was the final battle. Draco glanced at me before intertwining our fingers.

"Just in case I don't make it-," he started.

"You will," I insisted.

"Hermione listen, I love you, and I cannot imagine what I would have become without you. I need you!" He sighed.

"I love you too, and you will make it... because I need you just as much," I stood on tiptoe and pressed my lips to his again, just for a moment.

"You have a security problem headmaster!" Harry called. "And I believe that it is quite extensive!"

"Bombarda Maxima," Fred muttered, blowing the doors wide open.

We strutted into the Great Hall, Draco, Ron and I leading the pack. It was dimly lit, and lacked the floating candles that had been present since Hogwarts was founded. I felt a surge of anger towards Snape.

Without warning Snape hurled a curse at Harry.

"No!" Professor McGonagall stepped in front of him, while throwing up a strong shield charm.

Snape sent another curse and she retaliated.

"You. Will. Not. Terrorize. These. Students. Again!" McGonagall punctuated each word with another curse.

Snape folded into black smoke and disappeared through the stain glass window, shattering it.

Cheering filled the room.

"Silence!" My former teacher yelled. "Mr. Potter, I'm sure you have a good reason to be here. What can we do?"

"I need time to search the castle."

She nodded.

"We cannot hold him forever Potter, but we will for as long as we can. Bring your other one third over here and let's talk. Students! Seventh years may stay to fight if you choose, but everyone else follow Professor Slughorn out! As we discussed Horace," She ordered.

Most of the seventh years decided to stay, except for the Slytherins. Ginny also managed to stay, since her whole family was going to fight, even Percy.

"Professor, it's still two thirds," Harry muttered.

"Miss Granger is being held at Malfoy Manor is she not?" McGonagall asked curiously.

"I was," I walked over to them.

"Well! This is wonderful! I- What is Mr. Malfoy doing here?" Her voice grew cold as she spoke Draco's name.

"He helped me escape," I felt his grip on my hand tighten.

"Want to do a repeat of earlier?" Fred called.

"Spare me the pain please!" Ron moaned.

"They're dating if you can call it that. It's mostly snogging," George put in.

Harry pretended to throw up again. McGonagall just stared at us, our faces then linked hands.

"Well then, welcome to the Order Mr. Malfoy."

* * *

**Thank you reviewers! Over 200 wow! **

**To the guest that was my 201st reviewer: That gave me a good laugh! I'm glad you feel honored. Haha.**

**To the guest that apologized for yelling at my lack of updating last time: Honestly, it's fine. It was actually your review that snapped me out of my sadness and got me to update, so thank you.**

**If any of you have a suggestion on a match for Ron I would love to hear it. I've debated Luna, Pansy, and Lavender, but I don't know how I feel about them... so any suggestions would be great.**

**Have a good day!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Oh my gosh! You guys are hysterical. A bunch of the reviews you left me were subtly hinting not to kill Fred. As far as that is concerned I will say this... the Weasley twins are some of my favorite characters. Take that as you will:)**

**As far as pairing Ron off... I have definitely eliminated Pansy. That pairing also takes away some of the novelty of Dramione. That's all I've decided so far, but thank you for all your suggestions! I really appreciate it!**

**Thank you for following, favoriting, reading, and especially reviewing.**

* * *

As Mcgonagall walked away, Draco turned to me.

"She seemed... trusting," He muttered.

"She trusts me, and I trust you," I explained. "You don't have to fight with us you know? You could go back-"

Draco pressed his lips against mine gently, cutting me off mid sentence.

"I'm with you Hermione," He whispered against my lips.

"Oi! Save it for when we've won will you? At least let us think of a name for you two!" Fred called.

We stepped apart. He was right, this wasn't the time.

Suddenly Voldemort's voice filled the air demanding that we turn over Harry or die. He gave us one hour.

"Teachers! Strengthen the wards! Mr. Potter needs time and we are going to give it to him!" McGonagall commanded.

Ron ran up to us.

"Harry, I was thinking-," He started.

"Sounds dangerous," Draco murmured under his breath.

Ron ignored him and continued, "Even if we find the horcrux we need a way to destroy it, and the cup from Bellatrix's vault. Didn't you destroy the diary with a basilisk fang?"

Harry nodded and we slowly realized what Ron was suggesting.

"Why don't you three go get some? I need to figure out what this horcrux could be," He suggested.

"I'll come with you Harry. Honestly that makes more sense," Ron put in.

"Alright. Here Hermione take this," Harry handed me the Marauder's map. "That way you can find us once you've gotten them."

Ron and Harry gave me a tight hug and I returned it.

"Take care of her Malfoy," Harry snapped and the two of them went their own way.

"Horcruxes? He made a horcrux?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Seven in fact," I started towards Myrtle's bathroom.

He didn't reply, but I could hear his footsteps following me, all the way to the doorway of the bathroom. Then he stopped.

"Coming?" I asked.

He shook his head to clear it.

"Sorry. My memories of this bathroom aren't the greatest," Draco smiled ruefully.

I grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, before pulling him along.

"This is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry showed it to me after I was... um unpetrified," I explained.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"What?"

"For saying I wanted you to die," he continued.

"Forget it," I said, but smiled at his apology none the less.

I grimaced, staring at the sink, and then I made a hissing sound similar to what Harry mumbled in his sleep sometimes. Draco's eyes bore into my face as the sink folded in on itself.

"Harry talks in his sleep."

"So what do we do now?" He stared into the black hole.

I tugged him to the edge.

"Jump."

With that I pulled him into the hole.

* * *

"I still can't believe you three pulled all this crap every year and got away with it," Draco sighed and pulled the last fang from the basilisk's mouth.

"Neither can I," I laughed.

"Let's get out of here. It's kinda scary," He gathered up his fangs in his arms.

"It was the founder of your house who made this place."

"Exactly."

* * *

"What is this?"

"It's called the Marauder's map. Lupin, Sirius, Pettigrew, and Harry's dad made it. It shows where everyone is in the whole school. See, the boys are right there," I pointed to the dots heading towards the room of requirement.

Luckily we had ended up only a floor below them. It didn't take long before we found them, Ron pacing outside the room. Harry caught sight of us and set Hufflepuff's cup on the ground.

"Go ahead Hermione," Harry said.

I took a fang from Draco and knelt in front of the cup, raising the fang above my head. Then it began, just like my best friends had warned me it would.

A Draco, made of smoke and my darkest fears, appeared.

"Hello mudblood," The mist Draco sneered at me and I blanched. "What? Did you actually think I cared for you? That I could possibly be in love with a filthy little mudblood whore like you? You were a means to an end mudblood. All I wanted to do was break you, and crush your pathetic soul to dust."

"Hermione don't listen!" Ron screamed, but I barely heard him.

"I would never love scum like you! You are barely worthy to lick the dirt off my shoes!" It continued and I felt hot tears streaming down my face.

"Hermione don't you dare listen to what that thing is saying!" The real Draco shouted. "I love you!"

It was his voice that brought me back to reality and I brought my arm down. A piercing scream filled the corridor as the cup practically melted, and the fake Draco was no more.

Then real Draco caught me around the waist and pulled me against him.

"I'm sorry Hermione! I'm sorry!"

I shook my head into his chest. This wasn't made from his thoughts I knew. My deepest fear had just been exposed. I shook for another moment against him then stood straight up.

Draco's eyes asked me if I was okay, and I nodded slowly. I met first Ron, then Harry's eyes and nodded.

"Alright. Long story short, it is the diadem. And the Grey Lady, who's Ravenclaw's daughter by the way, thinks it's here," Harry's voice shook as he spoke.

And together the four of us walked into the room of requirement.

* * *

"Switching sides are we Draco?"

I spun around and pointed my wand at the speaker. Crabbe, Zabini, and Goyle had their wands pointing at us. Harry was halfway up a mountain of furniture, having seen the diadem near the top.

"Yeah, I am!" Draco snarled at them.

"For the mudblood it would appear," Zabini chuckled darkly.

"Don't call her that!" Ron shouted.

"Stupify," Draco hissed, but it was blocked.

"Crucio!" Goyle yelled, training his wand on me.

Draco slammed his shoulder against me hard, and took the curse straight in the chest. The scream that haunted me constantly reverberated through the room.

"Stupify!" I bit out.

This time they couldn't block the spell on time. Goyle was thrown backwards several feet, causing the curse to lift from Draco. Crabbe was muttering something under his breath causing bright orange flames to erupt from the tip of his wand.

"Got it!" Harry called down, before noticing the fire.

Ron tried to put it out with water while I pulled Draco to his feet.

"It's fiendfyre. That won't work," Draco gasped for air.

"Brooms! Go now!" I shouted over the roaring flames and pointed at several discarded brooms not far from us.

The fire had begun to form snakes and winged monsters, setting everything ablaze.

Harry jumped the last few feet to the ground and climbed on a broom. Ron grabbed the second one and Draco the third.

I gazed at the two Slytherins running away from the fire. Sure they had caused it but that didn't mean they should die. Of course they wouldn't let us save them anyway, but even so I felt guilt pooling in my stomach.

I turned towards the brooms reluctantly... and was met with a wall of fire.

* * *

**I hope you all liked it! Please keep reviewing!**

**If I made some drastic mistake please tell me. It's almost one in the morning.**

**On a side note... I'm working on a couple of one shots right now (Dramione of course) as well as another full length Dramioen.**

**Also my friend Reecse42 is working on a post war Dramione. It's amazing! She's on my favorite author list if you want to check it out!**


	25. Chapter 25

**I am so sorry guys! My computer crashed and it is pretty much dead. My dad is trying to fix it since he worked for a computer company a while ago but he says the prognosis isn't good. So here I am at the public library updating fanfiction. Really I am so sorry.**

**Thank you for all the reviews! They meant a lot.**

**So... the moment you've been waiting for. (Okay maybe not.)**

* * *

I had no choice but to run after Zabini and Crabbe, seeing as going to the brooms was obviously not an option. When I glanced up I could see the three boys flying toward the door, not even noticing I wasn't with them.

"Ron! Draco! Harry!" I screamed, but my voice was drowned out by the roaring flames.

Heat shot through my back as the fire grew closer. Just ahead I could see the Slytherins climbing up a mountain of furniture. Putting more energy into my run I hurled myself up, grabbed a chair, and started to climb.

Being on the run had left me in better physical condition than Crabbe, which honestly didn't take much, so soon we were next to each other climbing higher. Zabini had already reached the top. I faintly recalled him being a Quidditch player.

I was so close to the top.

I reached for a chair. Crabbe grabbed it as I did and it was pulled loose from the pile. We were both knocked off balance and I reached for anything else to latch onto, but found nothing.

I don't want to die, I thought. I have so much to live for if we win. As if in slow motion I began to fall backwards, towards the flames, with Crabbe right next to me.

Then a strong hand wrapped around my wrist, wrenching my shoulder, but stopping my descent. I looked down and saw Crabbe being swallowed by flames, a look of utter betrayal on his face, as his life ended with a scream that would haunt me forever.

Another hand reached for me and I grabbed on, letting Blaise Zabini pull me up next to him.

"You just saved me over your friend," I gasped.

"Unless they realize you're missing we're both dead anyway," he answered gruffly.

"Why?" I asked, and stifled a smile remembering how I had constantly asked Draco that.

"If you mean something to Draco, then you mean something to me. He's been my best friend since we were kids. Sorry about the mudblood thing by the way. My family actually isn't picky about blood purity, but I have to act like we are."

"May as well make our peace if we are going to die anyway... Blaise," I muttered and held out my hand.

He shook it.

Heat flared up and I could feel my body temperature rising steadily. Blaise probably could too.

"Hermione!" Draco yelled.

I looked up at my friends and boyfriend flying overhead. They went past us then looped around, flying towards us. Draco and Harry each reached an arm out. Blaise swung onto the broom behind Harry and a few second later Draco grabbed my arm and pulled me onto his broom.

The door grew smaller as we got closer. Ron made it through, followed closely by Harry and Blaise. Draco leaned closer to our broom and I squeezed my arms tighter around his waist.

Suddenly, we were hit with a wave of heat and thrown into the air. I landed hard on his chest and he swore violently as the air was pushed out of his lungs..

But we had made it out.

Black mist filled the corridor as someone stabbed the horcrux, following the stabbing with a kick into the room of requirement, just as the doors slammed shut.

"Well that went well," Ron coughed.

Draco laced his hand through my hair and crushed my lips against his.

"You're going to be the death of me Hermione Granger," he murmured against my lips.

I smiled as he deepened the kiss.

"Get a room!" Harry moaned.

"Shut it Potter! I'm enjoying the show!" Blaise chuckled.

"Reminder, we are in a war," Ron sighed.

Smiling, I rolled off Draco, letting him stand up.

"Blaise?" I said.

The boy turned back to me and I stepped forward to hug him. He went all stiff for a minute before relaxing more.

"Thank you," I told him.

"Uh... no problem," He muttered.

Draco cleared his throat and I took a step away from Blaise.

"You saved her?" Draco asked, and the other Slytherin nodded.

They hit each other so hard I was surprised no ribs were broken, then seemed to crush the life out of each other as they embraced.

"Thank you! I don't know what I'd do without her," Draco choked out.

"Yeah... okay," Blaise muttered, obviously uncomfortable with the whole displaying emotion thing.

Laughing a little the two boys stepped apart.

"You on our side now?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," he sounded unsure. "Yes I am," He said again, with more conviction this time.

"Good. Go get 'em Zabini!" Ron laughed.

With a last good bye and good luck, Blaise pulled out his wand and disappeared around a corner.

"One left right?" Draco asked once he was gone.

I nodded, "The snake, which is with Voldemort. Harry I wouldn't ask you to do this unless it was really necessary... but can you look into his mind?"

Harry nodded and let himself sink to the floor. He trembled and his head twitched.

"Hermione?" The blonde nervously asked.

"It's completely normal. He can see into Voldemort's mind," Ron explained.

"The Shrieking Shack. They're in the Shrieking Shack," Harry gasped.

* * *

"Potter, your head is screwed up."

"Thanks Malfoy. I hadn't figured that out on my own," Harry snapped sarcastically.

Harry stuck his arm out, stopping us all so that we barely missed a killing curse.

"Get ready to fight," He ordered.

I gripped my wand tighter.

"Through here and down to the Great Hall, and then get out and head towards the Whomping Willow," I told them and they nodded.

Everyone we saw seemed engrossed in a fight for the moment. We stunned the death eaters we could and kept moving towards the bottom floor. It wasn't until the fifth floor that Draco dropped off to help an order member that was outnumbered three to one. At the third floor paused our descent to help the order in a fight that they were obviously losing.

"Hey Georgina!" Fred yelled. "Some help would be great!"

Fred was single handedly fending off three death eaters. George tried to move towards his twin, but couldn't. The three of us weren't able to get out of fighting the two death eaters each we currently dueled either, and Fred needed help now.

"Bombarda Maxima!" Someone yelled.

The wall blew outwards. We were at the outermost wall of the castle and we could now see the battle raging below, on the grounds. A death eater flew past and I noticed Fred was down to two. He took a step back.

"Avada Ked-"

"Stupify!" Someone familiar screamed.

It didn't hit the man about to kill Fred, but it distracted him enough. There was a flash of blonde hair hitting Fred, knocking him away from another killing curse. Then the two rolled towards the hole in the wall of the castle... and disappeared over the edge.

With renewed energy I stunned the death eaters I was fighting and put one of Ron's in a body bind as Harry finished off the one he had left and Ron stunned another.

"Draco! Fred!" I screamed running towards the ledge they had fallen off of.

He couldn't be dead! Imagine what he would say. I died like a bloody Gryffindor. All that stupid self sacrificing crap! Tears pooled in my eyes.

I looked down but couldn't make out a place the two boys would have fallen. The chaos was too great.

"Gonna help me up or not? I have a Weasley dangling from my ankle and he's not the lightest fellow."

I glanced down and saw two bloody, dirt covered hands grabbed the crumbling wall.

"Draco!" I gasped and grabbed his wrists. "Ron! Harry! George!"

With their help we hauled first Fred, then Draco back onto solid ground.

"Told you he'd come in handy one day," Fred smirked.

* * *

**So Blaise hm. Let me know what you think about the chapter.**

**About the computer... I'm probably going to have to save for a new one so I will do my best to update but I can only get my mom to take me to the library so much.**

**Also happy birthday Daniel Radcliffe. I hope you get more than socks.**

**Please review! Have a great night!**


	26. Chapter 26

**My sincerest apologies everyone! My computer is still dead. I was also at my grandpa's almost all week and he lives in the land of no wi-fi and no 4G or 3G. So sorry!**

**Thank you for all the lovely reviews! I'm glad everyone seems to approve of Fred living. Almost to 300 (I didn't expect 100 let alone 300).**

**Also over 200 follows and 100 favorites! Thank you so much!**

**Can I add that I start band camp next week! I don't know what that will do to updates.**

**If I can suggest that you listen to the song Hallelujah. Personally I listen to the version by Rufus Wainwright. I know, those of you that know this song are going 'what are you going to do?'**

**Sorry...**

* * *

"Are you alright?" I asked Draco?

"Fine," He muttered. "I almost died like a bloody Gryffindor."

I laughed.

"We need to get to the Shrieking Shack!" Harry reminded us.

"We'll watch over the newest Gryffindor recruit," George smiled, looking at Draco who was still frozen in shock that he had done something so Gryffindor.

"Slytherin," My boyfriend managed to insist.

"Hermione!" Ron called.

I planted one last kiss on Draco's forehead before running after the boys.

* * *

"Kill," Voldemort hissed to his snake.

Harry stifled a whimper as the snake struck Snape repeatedly, then Nagini and Voldemort disappeared. We ran into the Shrieking Shack.

"Professor!" Harry cried, kneeling next to our former potions master.

Blood dripped from an open wound on his throat as he looked weakly up at us.

"Take them," Snape murmured, gesturing to his tears.

I handed Harry a flask.

"Miss Granger... I let go of the one woman I- I loved for power. Don't let D- Draco make the same mistake," he gasped.

"Professor please! We can-," Harry started.

"The pensieve Potter. T- take them."

"Professor!"

"You... you have your mother's... eyes."

Ron wrapped his arms around Harry while I stared at the man I thought I'd known in shock. Snape loved a woman once, and he had lost it. No wonder he acted so bitter all the time.

"You have fought valiantly."

Voldemort's voice send shudders through us, as it projected across the entire school grounds.

"Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste, so I therefore order my death eaters to retreat for one hour. In that time, Harry Potter must come to me in the Forbidden Forest. Harry, you have let your friends die for you rather than face me yourself. Come to me and I will let your friends live. Should you not we will kill every man, woman, and child who stands between is. You have one hour."

* * *

"Where is everyone?" Ron asked as we walked through the courtyard.

"Great Hall, probably," I muttered.

Harry stared at the rubble that littered the ground, still clutching the vial tightly.

The Great Hall was in ruins. The enchanted ceiling no longer reflected the sky, and the remains of statues lay crumbling. Bodies were laid carefully around. Some moved, others didn't.

"Ron, there's your family," Harry pointed to the group of red heads. "I'm going to the pensieve,"

He walked away.

"Hermione!"

Draco plowed into me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I felt hundreds of eyes on us.

"Draco! Are you all right?" I gasped, returning his hug.

"Yeah. Are you? You're covered in blood."

"It's not mine. Um... Snape is dead," I whispered to him.

He tensed for a moment, then sighed.

"Can I kiss you?" He murmured into my ear.

"Yes please."

Draco pressed his lips against mine. It was quick, but not too quick. Just the right amount of time, given the circumstances.

Fred whistled, George laughed, at least four people fainted.

We stepped away and made our way towards the Weasleys.

"Draco! Thank you so much!" Mrs Weasley swept my boyfriend into a hug.

He made a face at me over her shoulder and I laughed. I was pleasantly surprised when Ron also gave Draco a tight hug.

"Welcome to the family," Mr. Weasley smiled.

George cried into Draco's shoulder for several minutes, imagining what would have happened had Fred died.

Bill finally hugged him and Charlie followed suit. Percy looked him up and down before extending a hand. Draco shook it, smiling happily.

"Malfoy?" Ginny asked me.

I smiled at her, "Yep."

"Okay then," She stepped up to the blond. "If you ever hurt Hermione, you will wish you were dead."

To his everlasting credit he didn't even flinch, just stared down at the red head.

"I would never hurt Hermione. Not again," He gazed into my eyes as he spoke.

"Great!" Ginny threw her arms around him and Draco patted her back awkwardly.

His eyes pleaded with me to remove him from the uncomfortable situation. I only grinned. His eyes continued to get wider.

"Ron, Draco, we should go wait for Harry," I whispered so only they could hear.

They followed me. I sat on the steps outside the Great Hall. Draco wrapped an arm around my waist and Ron plopped down next to us. We sat in silence, since no words could possibly express the sorrow we felt. As hard as we tried to ignore them, we had all seen Remus and Tonks laying hand in hand on the ground, dead.

"What's bothering you Hermione?" Draco shattered the silence with his gentle words.

"It's just something Snape said," I answered.

"What did he say?"

"Well, he said he chose power over the woman he loved and he told me not to let you make that same mistake," I murmured. "That's what your mum meant in that note isn't it?"

"Yeah," He sighed.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed.

I jumped to my feet meeting the gaze of the saddest man I had ever seen.

"I'm going to the forest."

"Potter! You can't!" Draco shouted.

"I- I think you've know this for a long time Hermione and Ron. There's a reason I can talk to snakes, a reason I can hear the horcruxes!" Harry choked on his words.

"Because you are one," I whispered.

"It will only be destroyed if I go willingly and if Voldemort himself does it."

I threw my arms around him.

"Tell her... Tell Ginny."

He gave Ron a tight hug before doing the same to Draco.

"You aren't all that bad," Draco muttered and Harry tried to smile.

He said something to Draco, probably warning him not to hurt me.

"Kill the snake, guys. Then it's just him."

* * *

"Who is that!? Hermione! Who is it that Hagrid's carrying?" Ginny started to run towards the approaching death eaters but Draco caught her around the waist.

"Silence silly girl!" Voldemort hissed.

By now everyone fighting on our side had reached us. The two armies faced each other. I could feel a silencing spell descending on us.

"Harry Potter is dead!"

The army across from us laughed. Bellatrix held up a wand that I recognized as the wand Harry had been using. The snap seemed to echo around the silent courtyard.

"Now the time has come to declare yourselves! Join us or die!" Voldemort continued.

No one moved and I gripped Draco's hand harder.

"Draco!"

It was his father. I looked up at him and he shook his head. He wasn't going to go for his father.

"Draco! Come home," A gentle voice pleaded.

He inhaled sharply. I looked from Narcissa Malfoy to Draco then Harry's lifeless body in Hagrid's arms. Then I felt the hand I was holding began to pull away.

"Draco, I already lost Harry. I can't lose you too," I whispered, panicked.

He turned to me, his gaze once again shielded and cold. Then he sneered at me and yanked his hand away. I shut my eyes unable to watch him cross to Voldemort.

"You promised!" I screamed.

He stopped halfway there and turned to me. I stepped to the front of the crowd.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt me! You promised and this is so much worse than anything you ever did to me! Please!" I sobbed.

"Go on Draco, tell the mudblood you don't care about her!" Bellatrix shrieked.

Draco met my eyes and I couldn't see past his icy exterior.

"Did you actually think I cared for you? That I could possibly be in love with a filthy little mudblood like you?" He snarled. "All I wanted to do was break you, and crush your soul."

I gasped and felt tears streaming down my face. This was what the horcrux had said to me. This was my deepest fear.

"Obviously it worked," He laughed cruelly.

Then he turned and walked to the death eaters. I stopped watching and disappeared into the crowd.

"You had a second chance. I guess you blew that too," Blaise yelled to the blond Slytherin.

He didn't even turn around.

I collapsed onto the ground. I had loved him and now he had broken my heart. If I was broken before it was nothing compared to this.

"I loved you Draco Malfoy," I whispered to myself. "I love you."

* * *

**Sorry about Remus and Tonks, I just felt that I should let that part of the story remain. I liked the scene with Remus in the woods after he died so... sorry. And sorry about that.**

**Yeah. Please review. I'm going to go cry now. Have a good night.**


	27. Chapter 27

**To start... I'm really sorry about the updating, or rather lack there of. Band camp caught up with me and then I sprained my ankle and Achilles tendon on the same foot the other day. So my bad. I think it is worth the wait though.**

**Okay, the reviews on the last chapter were hysterical. A few of your predictions are going in the right direction. Someone said they thought Draaco would kill Nagini. Honestly, I hadn't even thought about that but I definitly want Neville killing Nagini. I loved that scene.**

**So thank you for all the reviews. I cried when I wrote it so I hoped it was angsty enough.**

**Also this is probably the last chapter. I might throw an epilogue in to set up the sequel which will be happening. More on that at the bottom.**

**Also I dedicate this chapter to anyone who has read this story and stuck through it until the end.**

**Well, time to find out if Draco is really going bad...**

* * *

The world was fading in and out.

_I'm not going to hurt you._

_I'll tickle you._

_Laugh Hermione, it's funny._

_I don't know either... so don't even ask._

Draco was gone now. Malfoy was back.

A dark arm wrapped around my shoulders and I looked over at Blaise Zabini.

"He... I... I love-," I tried to say.

"I know," Blaise replied simply.

The dark Italian boy let me silently cry in his arms for almost a full minute before a familiar voice pulled me from my sorrow.

"Just because Harry's gone doesn't mean we should stop fighting! People die everyday! They're still with us! Remus, Tonks! Don't let their deaths have been in vain!" Neville's words woke me up.

This wasn't over, not yet.

I stood, albeit shakily, but stronger than I was a minute ago. There was a moment of stunned silence as Neville reached into the sorting hat... and pulled out the sword of Gryffindor. Neville, as in can't remember his robes Neville, pulled out the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

And then it was chaos.

Harry dropped from Hagrid's arms, landed on his feet and sent a blast of fire toward Nagini. Unfortunately that didn't work. But he was alive! Harry started towards us, then turned around and stunned another death eater.

"Harry! Move!" Ron screamed.

Voldemort was distracted by some order members, allowing me time to run towards my best friend.

"Hermione, you have to get Draco!" Harry ordered.

I froze and just stared at him. Battles were erupting all around us, but I could only look at Harry in complete shock. Had he somehow missed what just happened?

"Why?" I managed to choke out.

In response Harry held up his wand, or rather Draco's wand.

And just like that, the pieces clicked together. My boyfriend had given Harry his wand, leaving himself completely defenseless in the midst of a battle.

"Hermione! Help me! Please!"

And there they were, the screams I never wanted to hear again. With speed I didn't know I possessed I ran towards them.

"You blood traitor! Crucio! And to think I called you my nephew! Crucio!" Bellatrix snarled.

"Stop! Ple-," the rest of his words were stolen by another heart wrenching scream.

The curse flew at him again and I threw myself in front of it, taking it straight in the chest. I was vaguely aware of my wand falling from my grasp through the haze of intense agony.

Then the black haired witch went flying back. Fights continued around me, but I heard none of them as I rolled to look at the blond Slytherin. He pressed my wand into my hand once again

Draco twitched as the residual effects of the cruciatus shot through him. I tried to speak, but couldn't. His gray eyes met mine, for once completely unguarded. Pain and anger was visible, but most of all they pleaded with me to forgive him.

In response I grabbed his hand and we stood together.

"Inside!" I yelled.

Together we ducked around smaller skirmishes and into the Great Hall. I saw Mrs. Weasley shoving Ginny aside, then a lifeless Bellatrix falling to the ground. Neville was fighting three death eaters. I disarmed one of them and handed Draco the wand.

"Hermione! I'm sorry! I really didn't mean-," he started.

"Not now," I snapped.

The words were harsher than I meant them to be and he flinched.

"Just... stay with me. We'll get through this together and then your explanation better be a damn good one!"

He nodded and together we returned to the battle. Voldemort and Harry were nowhere to be found, even as we fought our way towards the courtyard.

"Hermione!" Ron shouted before slamming into me.

I stumbled back against Draco and the three of us fell to the floor.

"It's happening! Voldemort and Harry are fighting right now," He yelled.

"Get off of me!" Draco moaned from beneath us.

Ron helped me up and stared at the Slytherin, looking positively murderous.

"I- I should kill you!" Ron snarled. "But Harry said not to... yet."

With that he punched Draco, who fell back to the floor.

"I deserved that," he muttered.

I pulled him up just in time to watch Neville separate Nagini's body and head. Voldemort screamed and the connection between his and Harry's wand broke.

"It's over Tom," Harry said wearily. "Expelliarmus!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

No one moved. The green light sped towards Harry, Harry's red light sped towards Voldemort. They hit, but rather than connecting, the killing curse rebounded. Voldemort's snake like pupils widened in shock, before he fell to the ground, dead.

There was the sound of wands hitting concrete. Every death eater held their hands in the air. Many blinked and looked thoroughly confused.

"We won!" Ron cried.

I thought about Remus and Tonks, Colin Creevey, Snape, and the many other dead. The fact that Draco and I might not be able to maintain a relationship after this.

"No one won Ron. They only lost more than we did," I murmured.

* * *

"Reparo," Harry said as he pointed the Elder wand at his Phoenix wand.

It snapped back together, as good a new. There was a crack as Harry snapped the elder wand in half and cast it over the bridge.

"Can someone please explain your plot so I can decide whether to kiss or murder my boyfriend?" I asked.

"It was Potter's fault," Draco muttered.

"It was," Harry stared at the ground. "I knew there was a distinct possibility I would survive."

"And you told ferr- I mean Malfoy but not us!" Ron yelled.

"Think about it Ron, the first people that others are going to look at when they see me 'dead' is you two. And no offense but neither of you can't mask your emotions worth crap. Then people would have found out and my ruse would be up," Harry ran his hands through his messy hair.

"Potter was going to need a wand and he wasn't going to get one from anyone else," Draco continued.

"We could have gotten him one!" Ron snarled.

"No," I muttered, finally understanding their plan. "Voldemort was only going to accept some people. A Weasley and a muggle born were definitely not going to be welcomed, but a Malfoy would be."

The blond nodded.

"My mom signalled that he was alive. It was just a subtle head nod. So... I-," Draco tried to say but instead buried his face on his hands.

"He needed to get me his wand Hermione. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a wand or the elder wand's power," Harry added.

"I used almost the horcrux's exact words hoping you might notice something was off."

"Hold on. Malfoy had to get Harry a wand so the elder wand's power would be Harry's. To do that he pretended to switch sides, breaking Hermione's heart in the process and risking his life. All for the greater good of wizarding society?" Ron was stunned.

"Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I can't be brave," Draco muttered with a not so subtle eyeroll.

"That's why you hugged him before you went to the forest," I realized.

"Hermione, you have to forgive him. I told him to," Harry pleaded.

"I understand if you won't. What I said was-,"

"Just shut up!" I sighed.

He looked utterly defeated until I crashed my lips against his, pulling back only when Harry made gagging noises.

"I forgive you, and I especially loved the self sacrificing Gryffindor crap," I whispered to him as I relaxed against his strong chest.

"I love you so much."

"I love you more."

"Doubtful," he smirked.

"Can we push them into the lake?"

We sprung apart and glared at the laughing Weasley twins.

"Come one, it'll make you wet faster," George smiled cheekily.

"I don't think they need help with that," Fred added.

"Not another word!" I snapped, blushing furiously.

"You never know Hermione maybe-," Draco's smirk broadened.

"I will beat the hell out of you if you don't shut up right now!"

"Awe! Dramione!" The twins cooed.

"Eww! The thought of them having... doing that," Harry groaned, rubbing his eyes furiously.

"Harry!" Ron yelled and squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

I kissed Draco again.

* * *

We lost our friends, our family, the people we loved. But we gained so much more. I got Draco, and Harry got Ginny, and Ron got... well Ron is still trying to find a girlfriend. Sometimes I want to forget, but then I look at the man holding my hand I remember why I can't. Through pain I found love, through torture I found rescue, through lies I found the truth. I found Draco, and Draco found me.

And we thought our story was over. Turns out it has only just begun.

* * *

**So... worth the wait?**

**So a sequel will be up eventually. It might not be until the end of October because of band and school (ugh). Sorry. But there will be one... promise. Ill add another chapter on this when that's up to let you all know.**

**I'm really sad this is over, but it's just the beginning right?**

**Thank you so much! Gosh I'm going to cry now.**

**Please review. it will fill the empty hole left in my heart by this story ending:(**

**Have a great school year, or whatever it is you are doing. Good luck!**


	28. Did you miss me?

Did you miss me? Did you miss me?

(Anyone get that reference?)

Hello guys, so I'm an awful person. I still don't have a computer because I can't even get a job until I turn sixteen to save for one.

So I'm giving myself a deadline. The first chapter of the sequel to this story will be out March 14, 2015 at the latest. Its in progress. So check that day. It's Saturday. I promise! Follow me if you want too.

Alright, one more thing. Goldenpaw 43 reviewed and asked for some tips for writing Dramione.  
So here they are...

First, if you have an idea just write it down. It doesn't have to be in story form yet, or it can be. Just write.

Second, don't worry about what others will think. Obviously to some extent you want people to like it, that's part of writing. But some people like dark stories and some like fluff so just go with your ideas. I promise someone out there will like it.

Last and I can't stress this enough, if you decide to change something part way through even though it doesn't fit in your original plan do it. When I started Blood Red it took a 180 degree turn. Someday I might publish the original way it was supposed to go. (Basically Draco was going to take her away immediately and then join Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the horcrux hunt.) Also don't delete your ideas. Save them somewhere else just in case.

I hope that helped you. If anyone wants any other advice please feel free to ask.

Remember Saturday.


	29. Despite Everything

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present 'Despite Everything' the sequel to 'Blood Red'.


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